


For Peace Comes at a Cost

by orphan_account



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Gen, How to Train Your Dragon 2 Spoilers, Post-How to Train Your Dragon 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-05
Updated: 2015-04-21
Packaged: 2018-03-16 12:20:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3488087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"We are the voice of peace, and bit by bit, we will change this world." Picking up about two months after the events of 'How to Train Your Dragon 2', Dragon Trapping reigns as a popular sport in the archipelago. Now, it's up to the Isle of Berk to end the practice. Hiccup's new mission is to establish peace between all humans and dragons in the archipelago. But there are just certain players who need to be eliminated to achieve that.</p><p>Gods know who, and Hiccup hopes he could achieve his goal without sparking a war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter I: Hiccup, the (Not-So) Chief

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first go at a regular non-crossover HtTYD fiction, set after the events of How to Train Your Dragon 2. Therefore, this story will have spoilers for the second movie.
> 
> Feedback is highly appreciated.
> 
> I've got most of the story planned out, but I am still going to remain open to suggestions.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiccup is the chief of Berk, and what better position is there to hold in the village? It's a role one would give anything for.
> 
> But apparently it isn't what Hiccup desires.

 

HICCUP

The part that strained me the most was the fact that I was restricted to the island—there was always some task I was forced to accomplish, always something to work on. It could be something as vital as deciding how to handle a shortage of food in the hangar to something as little as just rounding up a few sheep.

I never knew how I would handle my new role as chief. Dad died only a day before my inauguration, and still I was frightened of becoming my father. Though most of that was because I thought I never could—even now I still have my doubts—the other big factor that played a role in that mindset was the fact that his thing has always been organizing meetings and running events; it's just not my thing.

How does one show so many traits, traits that almost contrast one another? How is one able to act in so many different ways depending on the situation and still have time for his son? I've seen dad at times of the day since my earliest years, and there wasn't one second from sunrise to sunset in which he wasn't working in some way, yet he's always had the time for me.

Over the next few weeks, uproars in the Meade Hall have become almost commonplace, and the more they happened, the urge to fly away with Toothless only pulled at my mind harder.

But Toothless, being the new alpha, also had his own set of tasks to attend to, his own responsibilities. Even he was busy throughout the day, forced to care for the new dragons on Berk, and the load seemed to frustrate him as well.

The worst part was the fact that I hardly ever see him. The distance between the two of us only grew as we immersed ourselves in our roles in the village. At first, we insisted on doing everything as one, but after the first few days, we both came to the realization that it wasn't possible. At times, I would be needed at the academy while someone else may need Toothless in the hangar.

Berk was almost overcrowded with dragons; we have already sent a few fairly sized batches of dragons to either Outcast Island or Dragon Island, and yet the hangar still remained full at all times.

It has also put quite a strain on the feeding stations. Often, they were near empty due to the immense dragon population—it had pretty much doubled!—and sometimes I had to make the tough decision to close down the feeding stations until we could refill them. The time could range from about an hour to a few days.

Having not stepped off the island for weeks now, the only time Toothless and I could gain a sense of freedom was during dragon races, and those were all too short. Only once a week did one come around, and usually the game would go on for only fifteen minutes before they released the black sheep.

And we didn't even participate in every single dragon race held—sometimes, I would give up my spot to let Eret race. Not that it frustrated me, as I was still allowed to fly during the races as I hosted them, but Eret just seemed to be too inept to participate in a dragon race, at least for now. He needs more training with Skullcrusher.

My mother and I sat at the dinner table; I was in the seat facing away from the Meade Hall entrance while she sat across from me. I stared at the chicken leg in front of me, and the scent reached my nose. My stomach rumbled, urging me to dig into the thing and tear it apart, but my mind influenced me otherwise. I just let my arms flop to the side as the leg continued to sit there, almost taunting me.  _I'll probably just end up giving this to Stormfly,_  I think.

"Alright. What's been on your mind now?" mom asks, catching me off guard.

I blinked a couple of times before I responded. "Nothing, mom. I swear I'm fine." I took the chicken leg and started to dig into it, but she had seen right through my lie. The leg tasted stale—bland—and my throat hurt when I swallowed.

"Hiccup, I know you're lying," she says. "Seriously. What exactly is bothering you?"

I sighed in front of her. "I've just been thinking about dad recently, and… really, just how great of a chief he was." I decided not to mention the Bewilderbeast from the nest. Its body is probably still lying outside the sanctuary, which must be deserted by now.

"It's just the part about being so busy lately," I continue. "I mean, sure I get to see Toothless, but now we can hardly ever go on just a simple leisure flight. Now, five minutes seems to be quite a lot to ask for."

"Just give it some more time. You'll grow used to it. If you were there when Stoick started, you'll notice that he started off just like you did," she replies.

"And I've heard that before. Gobber told me about how dad would always struggle at first when he became chief. I mean, I've filled in while he was gone a few times, and it seems none of them really went that well."

Mom continued. "Well, you definitely know that as the chief, you're going to have to make some tough decisions that not everyone will agree with. There's always going to be that one person who doesn't agree with your decisions."

There was a slight rumbling outside. Through the open Meade Hall doors, I could see a storm developing in the distance. "Storms tonight. I'd head home now."

I stood up with my barely-eaten chicken leg, but I didn't dispose of it. I left the Meade Hall, and to my surprise, I found Toothless waiting for me right outside—how long has he been here? The second he spotted me, he came over and nuzzled me on the side. His head traced to the sky and he lowered his back, exposing the saddle; he wants to fly.

"Okay, okay. Let me get rid of this chicken first," I reply, finding Astrid just outside her house. She was smoothing the spines of Stormfly's tail when I reached her.

"Oh no," she says with an obviously sarcastic voice. "With what does the chief need help in doing this time?"

I tossed the chicken leg at Stormfly, and she snapped her head to grab it. In a second, the bitten-into chicken leg was down the dragon's throat.

"What, oh, nothing!" I say. "I just came her to drop that off. I really didn't feel like eating tonight." My eyes wandered off to the darkening water, and I pictured the numerous islands that stood off in that direction—obviously, we couldn't see them.

"Sure," she continues talking in her sarcastic voice. "Well, are you racing tomorrow, or do you have to give your spot to Eret again?"

"I'm uh… racing tomorrow. It's about time. Two straight weeks having to give my spot to Eret. Ugh, that felt like forever."

Again, there was another booming in the distance, only this time it was much louder than the last. Droplets began falling from the sky—oh, this better not mess with tomorrow's race. If we're forced to cancel tomorrow's race just because of a storm, then I wouldn't know what to say.

 _But why race?_  I think.  _Why not just ditch like that one time before you met Eret?_

"Well bud, I think we'll have to shorten this flight," I say. Toothless cooed as if pleading to stay out longer.

"Hey, I want to stay out longer too, but it just looks like Thor has other plans for us." I still mounted Toothless, however. "But let's make use of the time that we do have."

Once the prosthetic left leg was secure on the saddle, I pushed it down to extend the artificial tail fin. Right away, I found the wind blowing at my face as Toothless took off at a breakneck speed that I had not prepared for.

After forcing him to slow down so I could catch my breath, we lowered ourselves to the point where Toothless's tail was only inches from the water. It was impossible to see our reflections in the rippling ocean, as there was now little to no light from the sinking sun. Also, the nearby storm was also contributing to the obscurity, and soon I felt like I was flying blindly, relying on Toothless to point us where we want to go.

"Okay, bud. Let's see what you've got," I whisper into Toothless's ear. This time I had prepared for it, and with one swift motion, Toothless kicked up to the same blazing speed that we had started at.

To be honest, I found blind flying to be more fun when compared with a regular leisure flight during the day (though the twists and turns were probably far from regular). The best parts were when I couldn't see what was ahead of me and I was relying solely on Toothless to keep us both up.

The two of us pulled straight up and started a rapid vertical ascent. Toothless spun around several times as the moment of pure weightlessness overtook us. We began to slow down, and I quickly unbuckled my leg from the saddle.

The distance between the saddle and me began to grow, and I started freefalling before Toothless even began plummeting down. He roared into the night, knowing that I have parted at an unusual time.

I positioned myself so my head pointed straight down to the ocean. Slipping my hands through the cuffs in my suit, I shot one glance at Toothless, whose bright green eyes served as the only indicator that he was there.

I spread out my arms, and Toothless did the exact same with his wings. My body shot straight back up into the air, leaving me breathless for a split second before I reached a stable height and began gliding through the skies. The isle of Berk stood out below me, the torches in the village revealing both Vikings and dragons alike in the village.

Even after having done this so many times before, it never got old, especially since it was the first time I've been able to do this since my inauguration. Just the freedom of being able to fly, with or without a dragon, was the one thing I've been missing most.

Lightning flashed right in front of me, and the light patting of the rain began to pick up rapidly. This is not optimal conditions to be flying in, so decided to call out to Toothless. He shot a bolt that exploded in midair right in front of me, just so I could take note of where he was.

Peering back through the smoke, I found those two green eyes lunging at me, and the dark clouds were only growing closer.  _Come on, Toothless,_  I think, reaching out for where the saddle would be.

First, my hand brushed over something scaly—it was most likely his head, and then something leather looped around my fingers. I closed my hand and tried to pull myself in on the saddle, and we shot straight down. With all my might, I clutched onto the handle of the saddle, feeling my leg(s) pull away as they struggled to keep up with the rest of my body.

I could not tell how close the ocean was, as we were moving so fast my eyes began to water. All I could hope for was that Toothless would pull up soon, and we won't have to take a freezing dip the night before our next dragon race.

"Come on, bud!" We began to level out, and the rest of my body flung itself straight onto the saddle. My stomach felt like something had just bitten it, and my right leg began to feel sore from the knee down. The heavy rain that slapped my back turned back into a light tapping before becoming nothing.

I grumbled, clenching my teeth together and trying to shake off the pain. "Perfect," I mutter to myself sarcastically. Toothless cooed in agreement—did he think I directed my voice to him, and told him that the rescue maneuver went perfectly?

Sure, I didn't, but I decided to build on the unintentional lie. "Nice catch there," I say to him, continuing to lie down on the saddle. I sighed heavily, staring blindly into the night sky. Some distance below us, I could still see the border between the air and the water.

Looking back at Berk, I saw that dark clouds have enveloped the village, and lightning struck the sea next to the island. Hopefully, everyone's taken shelter by now, as it looked like the storm was going to last until morning; if the time for the race comes and the storm persists, then I am definitely not sending the entire village to the stands that stood precariously over the sea in the middle of a storm. That would be like Toothless ordering all the non-Tidal Class dragons to throw themselves into the ocean and make no attempt to emerge. It's just plain illogical.

But that also meant that landing on Berk now would be a precarious task, and I was no longer sure if I should attempt to land there anymore. The trees in the forest shook violently, meaning this storm must have come with immense winds—possibly one of the worst conditions to fly in. "Great," I mutter to myself. "Stayed out for too long and now I can't land on Berk."

I shouldn't have been out for this long. I guessed I was just carried away by the feeling of finally being able to fly on my own without any restrictions.

"Well, bud, I'm not going to make you land in that thing," I tell Toothless. He agreed, and we both turned away from the island. "What do you say about resting on Dragon Island and then coming back tomorrow morning for that race?"

Toothless turned in the direction of Dragon Island, and it didn't even take the slightest bit of noise from him to know that he was just following what I was saying.

As the clouds in the sky began to diminish, my vision began to return to me gradually, the light from the moon reaching down through the small gaps that weren't filled by clouds. It wasn't nearly as bright as the sun, but it still provided enough light so I could at least see what was in front of me.

The gray island appeared in view, looking just as it did so many years ago—it seemed as if nothing has touched it since the Red Death. The only change since the battle with the Red Death was the disappearance of the fog surrounding the dormant volcano.

I prompted Toothless to land on that island, and he did so, the gravel near the shore crunching under his paws the second he landed. Expecting to find the place infested with dragons—we have sent so many here—I was quite surprised to have come up empty. They must be on the other side.

There was a gaping hole in the side of the volcano from when the Red Death tore the whole structure apart. If I were to go into the nest, I would still find winding passageways that acted like a maze, but the ultimate destination would end up as quite a disappointment. There would no longer be dragons posted on niches with a misty fire pit at the bottom. Rather, the area would be abandoned, save for the occasional dragon that would wander into the former nest.

After finding a cave and settling in it, I began to feel a bit drowsy. Being chief also puts a strain on my sleeping schedule, as I sometimes had to stay up really late at night and rise before dawn even broke. Today was not one of those days, and I was lucky that it wasn't.

Toothless curled up next to me near the cave wall, resting his head on his front paws. I rested my head on his side, and it was no surprise that once I closed my eyes, it took me less than five minutes to fall asleep.

* * *

ASTRID

"Have you seen Hiccup lately?" I ask Fishlegs, who was just outside his house. Last night's storm left all of our roofs soaked, but it seemed that everything we would need for today's race—the stands, the catapults, and the sheep—have made it through the night.

Fishlegs yawned and stretched out his arms. "Huh?" he starts, and his eyes widen upon seeing me. "Oh, hey Astrid. No, I haven't seen Hiccup since he took off last night. Don't sweat it. He probably snuck back into the village right before that storm, or he stayed out a bit too long and decided to find a better place to stay because he didn't want to land in that storm."

Well, I didn't need him to tell me that much, but I showed no displeasure in the tone of my voice. "Well, that's more than what I needed," I say. "Thanks."

I turned away and, as I thought of it more, I actually began to take his advice. The race wasn't until noon anyway, and if Hiccup and Toothless did decide to settle on some other island, then a few hours should be enough for them to get back.

And it turned out Fishlegs was right. As I we were herding the sheep for the day's race, the chief rode in on Toothless and landed right in the middle of the field. Thankfully, that part had already been cleared out.

"Good morning, milady," Hiccup greets, dismounting Toothless. "So how'd that storm go last night?"

"Oh," I start, "nothing too much. It didn't knock over any of the rafters. It was just… wet." I couldn't think of any better word to describe rain that felt like it was slapping your back. I didn't even have to leave the house to know it would hurt—every droplet made violent splashes when they hit the ground. "The question is, where were you all night?"

"Dragon Island," Hiccup answers. I froze and turned to him, looking for an explanation.

Hiccup sighed, knowing that he would have to tell me everything. "The storm picked up while we were out flying, and I didn't want to risk having to land in the middle of one. So I just took both of us to Dragon Island for the night. IT was actually quite boring. We didn't really run into any of the dragons that we sent off there and—"

"Okay, I get it," I interrupt with a waving hand. "But hey, the quicker we can get everything set up, the sooner we can start this race."

"Right," says Hiccup. "Well, I'm probably going to go and help get the banners up." He took off with Toothless and disappeared in the village.

I continued to finish herding the sheep. There's twelve white in total, all marked with the same four-ringed target on each side—orange made the outermost ring, then green, then yellow, then red marked the center. The last one was the black sheep, decorated with streaks of yellow paint across the head.

Once everything was done, it was just a matter of waiting until noon. We still had a couple of hours to wait.

When we finally reached noon, all riders—Hiccup, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and me—lined up next to each of our respective goals. The crowd began to gather in the stands, the seats growing more crowded as each minute passed. Only recently, the village has decided to add a net under the stands to take care of the falling hazard that's seemed to be a persistent issue with dragon races. It made sense—leg room was extremely difficult to find while spectating, and usually the entire audience is on their feet the entire race, screaming at the tops of their lungs.

The horn sounded, the sonorous voice able to be heard from all corners of the island, and soon all riders were zooming away from the start in search of the first sheep. It could be anywhere in the village—wedged between houses, wandering in a field, anywhere.

To add to that, we could only take those marked with targets. They only released one at a time, along with untagged sheep—to be honest, it became quite annoying when a targeted sheep hid among the unmarked ones, hiding the targets on each side.

Spotting the first sheep in a dark passageway between two houses, I signaled to Stormfly to dive down for it. As far as I knew, there was no one near me—the closest racer to me was Snotlout, and he wasn't turned in my direction.

Stormfly extended her claws as we approached the puffy figure on the ground, and she picked it up with ease. Taking in my surroundings again, I veered off toward the Meade Hall, away from everyone else.

As I looped back toward the goals, the twins appeared right in front of me and targeted the sheep trapped in Stormfly's claws. Barf breathed a cloud of gas straight in my path, and Stormfly dove straight down to evade it.

Something slammed into us, and I noticed that the sheep had broken loose from Stormfly's claws. Snotlout pulled up next to us, holding the sheep in hand and waving it as if he were taunting us. "You wanted this, Astrid?"

Well, he may have just picked the wrong racer to tease. Seeing the goals approaching, I decided to continue down, and soon we were under the goals and watching Snotlout heading for his goal.

Stormfly's wing skimmed the water right before we pulled straight up, ramming into Hookfang's underbelly. It jarred the sheep loose from Snotlout's hands, and I could just hear it bleating over the intense roaring of the crowd right before it found Fishlegs's hands. Before anyone could reach him, he deposited it into his net.

One down, eleven more to go.

Everyone dispersed into the village again, and I spotted Ruffnut holding this lap's sheep. Both Snotlout and Fishlegs were in hot pursuit, barely an arm's reach away from Barf and Belch's tail.

I swerved back toward the goals, cutting off the twins' path. They turned to the right, away from their own goal, and Ruffnut narrowly missed a swing of a hammer from Snotlout.

But Fishlegs was right in their path, and Meatlug slammed right into the bottom of Barf's head. The sheep went flying, and Meatlug pulled up quickly. It landed in Fishlegs's hands, and he started on a beeline toward his goal.

 _You're not getting away with a second one,_  I think, diving in toward the duo. I traveled just above the goals, set on a collision course with Meatlug.

Just as our two dragons were within feet of each other, I hopped straight over Meatlug's head and swiped at the sheep, feeling the wool reach my arms. I pushed off her with my right foot, finding Stormfly waiting for me below.

Once I was back on top of her saddle, she continued forward. I deposited the sheep into my net as we passed it.

The racing with the regular white sheep continued for about fifteen more minutes. Snotlout had a total of four sheep in his net, I had three in mine, Fishlegs had four, and the twins had one. It was a very close game indeed, and it was certain that whoever ended up with the black sheep in their net would be the winner.

The horn sounded once again in the village, signaling the last lap. Gobber was operating the sheep launcher, and soon all of us caught sight of the black sheep sticking out above the rooftops. Everyone set their sights on catching it, and when I looked over to my left, I found Snotlout and Fishlegs trying to fight each other off as they struggled to reach the black sheep.

There was a mere blur that flashed across my vision from right to left, and I turned my head to find that Tuffnut—of all people—had the black sheep in his grasp. Snotlout and Fishlegs broke off from each other as they both started to pursue Barf and Belch.

I decided to maneuver back to the goals again, but this time I had my sights set on reaching the twins well before they would reach their goal. Theirs, in my opinion, was the most difficult one to reach, as it was the one closest to the stands.

Ruffnut made a grab for the black sheep, and soon the two twins were stuck wrangling each other for control—it seemed that both of them wanted to be the one who wins the game for them. Snotlout came in from above and banked sharply on Hookfang, the Monstrous Nightmare's wing only inches from Belch. He held his right arm out.

He managed to dislodge the black sheep from their grasp, but he was not able to collect the black sheep for himself. Rather, I found that it ended up in the arms of Fishlegs, who had flown under in an attempt to get to the twins.

Before anyone could reach him, Meatlug guided them below the nets and shot straight back up to where they were right above the goal, and Fishlegs deposited the sheep to take the game.

I glanced at the stands, seeing the bright yellow flag waving in front of the goals. Only a few seconds later, I realized that the race was over.

Fishlegs went for one more victory lap, reaching his hand out into the crowd as he flew precariously close to the stands.

"Wow," I say, managing a slight smile. "That was close. Don't you think so, Stormfly?" I looked down to the Nadder who squawked, agreeing with me.

I scanned over the nets, recounting everyone's scores. Fishlegs had taken the game with fourteen, Snotlout was in second with four, I was in third with three, and the twins were next with only one.

That's when I noticed that Hiccup's net was completely empty—untouched, undisturbed by the entire event.

Then I realized I haven't seen him for the entirety of the race. I was so caught up in the moment—the dragon races were fun and all, and I seemed to have forgotten that Hiccup was actually going to participate in this race. Eret has been hogging the spot for weeks now, and since the first time he ditched a race, I've grown used to not seeing him at all during these events.

 _That chief,_  I thought. Of course, I would know where to find him—Nadders are great trackers, and I could easily just use something in house to try to track him down. It's probably the usual again; he's most likely out on another 'leisure' flight.

But he just went on one last night! Also, his 'leisure' flight was what caused him to spend the entire night away from Berk, and now he's off the island again for the second time in less than twenty-four hours. Who knows how long he's going to be away this time?

Finding Eret wandering through the village, I landed right next to him, interrupting him as he was repairing a catapult that had been damaged last night—why did he even leave it out to begin with?

"Oh, Astrid," he says upon realizing that I had landed right next to him. "What brings you here? I figured you would have won that race."

"Well, I didn't, and I'm not frustrated about it," I reply. "Anyway, no one's seemed to notice that Hiccup ditched us  _again_."

Eret turned his back to me and continued working. "Really? You and a Deadly Nadder would need Skullcrusher's help to track him down?"

"Am I implying that?" I ask. "I'm just here to tell you about it, that's all."

There was a momentary silence before Eret spoke up again. "Okay, I don't really understand why you would come here just to tell me that Hiccup ran away again. Now go hunt your boyfriend."


	2. Chapter II: Two Old Alphas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiccup left the village in the middle of the race, and now he is nowhere to be found.
> 
> What will the chief come across?

HICCUP

I am an idiot for deciding to leave in the middle of that race.

No, in fact, I actually left the moment I heard that horn ringing throughout the entire village. The moment everyone heard that sonorous rumble, I searched in the hangar for about a minute before sneaking out of the village on Toothless.

We flew close to the water, and I spotted a small stirring under the surface directly in front of us. Toothless barrel rolled and dove toward the water as a Thunderdrum emerged in front of us. We passed directly under its wing, barely missing it by inches.

Astrid will track us down in no time, and I know that for a fact—both Eret and Astrid own tracking dragons, and both of them could easily take something in my house with my scent on it and have me on my way back to Berk in a matter of hours.

I just couldn't stop going—something just pulled at me to stop on my path and turn around, but it couldn't come through. I kept going forward and didn't dare to look back.

Maybe I just want to escape from responsibility, maybe I'm avoiding the village just because it kept me away from Toothless almost all the time, or maybe I'm doing this just to be free—that's it. All those three reasons tie in with each other in some way.

"Nothing extreme today," I tell Toothless as we pulled up just below the clouds. We reached a stable altitude and just continued forward, and I took in the stunning view I had from this point. There's an island over that way, a pretty interesting glacier the other way, and another forest island up ahead.

Taking us a bit lower as we approached the forest island, I spotted another stirring in the water near one of the island's cliffs. This wasn't just another ordinary Tidal Class dragon surfacing again—no, this was bigger, as the waves crashing into the cliff seemed to strengthen as the stirring approached it.

Something of an unimaginable size burst out of the ocean near the cliff, sending water droplets as far as thirty meters onto the island. The figure bore a muddy gray color and had dark red accents all over its body, including the end of the frill. Its wings were too small to support flight, and it possessed one single curved tusk on the right side—the other tusk seemed to have been blown straight off. It didn't take me longer than a second to realize what it was.

"Oh, look at what we have here," I say to Toothless while watching the Bewilderbeast place its front paws at the top of the cliff. I didn't know whether or not it would still attack us on sight, despite being aware that Drago is most likely dead. "You want to go check it out, bud?"

Toothless warbled and began to lower us toward the top of the cliff. As we descended, I noticed several Monstrous Nightmares flying straight past the behemoth like the thing wasn't even there to begin with. It's probably lost its ability to control other dragons after losing its alpha status to Toothless.

Taking my prosthetic out of the buckle on the saddle, I hopped off Toothless and onto the rocky cliff to face what was once Drago's Bewilderbeast. I remained a bit skeptical as I stared at it for what seemed to be hours, and it did nothing but stare back with its blue and red eyes, its black pupils shrunken into slits.

I remained close to Toothless as we approached the cliff's edge, nearing the former alpha. Should anything go wrong, Toothless can easily get both of us out of a situation like this, even if that means blowing its other horn clean off.

The Bewilderbeast's mouth moved ever so slightly before opening and puffing a small amount of ice straight at me. I blocked the incoming wave with my arms, expecting a biting cold and a fortress to form around me, but there was only a cold, windy feeling. A bit of snow stuck onto my arms and hair.

Brushing most of the white powder off my hair, my mind took me back to the first time I met a Bewilderbeast, this time on better terms. It was the one in the sanctuary, the one this one killed before taking all the dragons to Berk.

From the back of my head, I could hear my mother chuckling. "He likes you."

I didn't know how to respond. Does this mean we're on good terms now that Drago is powerless, or is this just some temporary truce? It was clear that this beast means no harm—I'm pretty sure it would have frozen us by now if it did—but still I remained attached to Toothless as we continued up the cliff.

And even if, say, Drago did survive and somehow manages to reunite with this Bewilderbeast, what threat does he pose on Berk? His biggest weapon was the Bewilderbeast's ability to control all dragons for the sake of conquest, but without that power, he seemed to be nothing. By now, if he threatens Berk without that ability to control, everyone would just laugh him down until he breaks (assuming he's not broken already).

"Uh… is that supposed to be a truce?" I wonder out loud, turning to Toothless to find out what this dragon was up to. Apparently, Toothless seemed just as confused as I was, and that's saying something—he's always acted hostile to strangers or enemies, but apparently not this time.

I continued to stand there, rooted to the ground and staring straight into the dragon's eyes. A mixture of fear, awe, and curiosity held me in place—if I move, then I was afraid it might try to freeze me, but I wanted to find out more about what was going on.

Then the Bewilderbeast removed its paws from the cliff and began to back away to the ocean. Realizing what was happening, I sprinted as quickly as I could to the edge of the cliff to see the former alpha diving headfirst into the water. And about fifty feet away, I could see its head emerge above the surface again, turned away from us.

I turned to Toothless, who was waiting for me at the exact same spot where we landed, and shrugged. "I don't get it."

He cocked his head to the side, as if displaying the same level of confusion as me. Wasn't there supposed to be more? A Bewilderbeast with one tusk simply rising out of the water onto a cliff and puffing mist at me and then retreating into the ocean again doesn't really send a message.

I stood there for about a minute before deciding that staying here and doing nothing isn't going to help either of us move forward.

"Well, bud, I don't think either of us know what all that was about, but we should get going." I buckled my prosthetic in the stirrup of Toothless's saddle and he took off in the same direction we were going in.

* * *

ERET

What did I ever do to deserve this? What was supposed to be a search that only Astrid would go on has turned into something that all the teens have decided to do, dragging me into this event in the process. We even had to cut Fishlegs's celebration for winning the race.

One tracker dragon—the Deadly Nadder—is enough to go with. Astrid could have easily taken one of the items in Hiccup's house that she knew, for sure, Hiccup has handled more, but no. Someone has to overhear the two of us talking and feel like she has to get involved.

Taking two trackers on such a simple search is overkill. No matter how large a search party could get, two trackers is always too much. And without any dragons other than Skullcrusher, it seemed that I didn't have any choice.

"Now why exactly did you have to drag me along in this again?" I almost shout. Astrid was the farthest rider from me, at the front of the pack, while I hung around behind everyone.

She looked back from her dragon to face me, also nearly shouting. "Well, I don't think you can be too careful. Two trackers just in case something went wrong."

Skullcrusher started banking to the right, snapping me into position on the saddle. He seemed to want to go somewhere—that's probably the direction Hiccup is in.

"Whoa," I say, laying my hand on the back of his head. "I think Skullcrusher wants us to go right."

Without a reply, everyone started to the right, headed toward a pretty distant island with a high cliff. There was a huge splash near the cliff that rained all over the island. I turned to the others, but they didn't respond—it seemed as if none of us knew what was going on.

Something emerged from the water, moving away from the cliff. From where I was, I could not tell what the thing was—it wasn't coming toward us, and Snotlout and the twins did not even seem to think for more than a second before continuing.

After about a minute, a black figure bolted straight to the sky from the top of the cliff, sticking out in the bright blue. My eyes glued straight onto the figure, and I watched as the distance between us and the Night Fury seemed to grow.

"That's definitely Hiccup," says Astrid. "Come on, let's follow them."

She drifted in front of everyone, taking charge of the entire group. The Night Fury was faster than all of us, and the figure seemed to shrink as Hiccup and Toothless continued to put more distance between us and them.

We continued behind them for a while, and it didn't take long for me to lose track of time. I began to drift off on Skullcrusher until I noticed something off in the distance. There was a looming ice fortress on the island, seemingly crumbling beneath its own weight. "Look!" Astrid says, pointing at what Hiccup and Toothless seemed to be heading to—it was the same ice fortress.

They landed on a balcony-like ledge overlooking the snowy beach, and as the figures grew closer, I spotted Hiccup dismounting Toothless and heading into what was the sanctuary—now, it has been turned into another former battleground, and it seemed as if everyone just packed up and left the area.

On one side of the island, there lay a Bewilderbeast whose body was in a state of decay. It was hard to look at without grimacing—parts of its skeleton were already exposed.

Why would Hiccup come back here, of all places? From what I could recall, nothing good has come from being here—an alpha died here, Berk's chief died here, everyone lost all their dragons here, so why would Hiccup want to relive all those moments?

Sure, this was where Hiccup reunited with his mother after twenty years, and this was also where Stoick reunited with his wife after the same amount of time. But still, more bad things came from here than good things.

Upon entering the sanctuary, I found that much has changed on the interior compared to how it looked last time. Plant life in the area was teeming, infesting at least half of the sanctuary—heck, I could barely see any of the cave entrances from my vantage point near the open roof.

A waterfall fed into a pool at the bottom, which was where the Bewilderbeast rested. Just seeing the sheer size of the pool told me just how massive the alpha species could become.

The one thing that was missing here was the dragons. Thankfully, they were all safe now, residing on either Berk, Dragon Island, or Outcast Island, though I wasn't the most confident about sending them to the latter.

And we all know who drove them out. A part of me wanted to bring Drago here just so I could kill him a second time, just so I could show him who was right. I could almost imagine him—of all people—shying away from the battle on Berk as he took refuge from what was his army on his then powerless Bewilderbeast.

Hiccup and Toothless landed on a platform overlooking the pool in the middle. It led to a cave, which the duo didn't enter. The moment Hiccup set his foot down, he spotted all six of us flying toward him.

"Well, look at who decided to join the party," says Hiccup, turning to the scenery and pulling out a map. "What are you doing here?"

Astrid landed next to them. "Hunting you down. The question is, what are  _you_  doing here? There's no one to avoid this time."

Hiccup laid out the map flat on the ground, saying, "I'm not avoiding anyone, no, I'm just here because I wanted to go somewhere, and this seemed like a pretty nice place to check up on."

He diverted his attention to the map as if he were ignoring us, scribbling down a few words onto a recently added piece of paper.

"Well, I think revitalization of this place would be the first thing we want to get started on," says Hiccup, continuing to mark on the map.

"Revitalization?" I question. "What new project just hatched in your mind this time?" I saw that the others also looked puzzled.

Hiccup stood up and approached the edge of the platform. "This, this can completely solve the overpopulation issue we have back at Berk! We all know that both Dragon Island and Outcast Island are going to become full very soon, and I highly doubt those two islands could hold enough dragons from Berk. So, we can simply start sending some of the wild dragons here, where they've got plenty of space, a protective fortress over their heads, you know, just everything a dragon would need!"

There were slight murmurs in the group, mostly agreeing with this idea of sending wild dragons back to where they came from. Honestly, I didn't think it was that bad of an idea. If it can help us solve the feeding stations always running out and the low food supply, then I'd most certainly assist them in this project.

"That's… actually… another really smart idea," says Astrid, approaching Hiccup.

"Not to mention it's more of your kind of thing, with all these projects," blurts out Fishlegs.

Astrid glanced at him for a split second before continuing. "So, where do we start? The entire village should know that you're gone now, and we're here a few hours away from home."

"Well, do we have any Terrible Terrors?" asks Hiccup. "At least someone in the village should know that we're going to be out here for a while."

"Nope," I say.

"Great. Then we'll have to send someone back to Berk and deliver the message." Hiccup took out a clean sheet of paper and began scribbling on it. "Eret, you think you can find your way back alone?"

I shrugged, saying "Okay, I don't really have a problem with that." I snatched the paper from his fingers.

Knowing that stalling here would only worsen the village's condition, I mounted Skullcrusher right away, securing the sheet of paper on the saddle. We took off through the winding sanctuary, and we emerged from the fortress in seconds. Again, we passed by the Bewilderbeast's body, but I didn't keep my eyes on it for too long as I started back to Berk.

The first hour of the flight felt a bit boring. There was nothing but water that went on for miles and miles, along with the occasional remote island, completely uninhabited and—most likely—hazardous to land on without the others.

Then I spotted a ship anchored near one of the islands. Trying my best to observe from a distance, I found that the thing was loaded with a catapult and several nets. This ship belongs to trappers, no doubt.

Skullcrusher wanted to pull away from the island, but I rested the palm of my hand on the side of his head. "Easy now," I say softly. "Let's go see what they're up to."

A roar erupted from the forest island below, causing both of us to stumble on our way down. That roar belonged to a dragon.

Skullcrusher landed in a clearing in the forest, and the first notable thing I saw upon landing was a net trap near the base of a tree. Looking further into the forest, I found that the place was dotted with all different kinds of dragon traps imaginable, I assumed I was lucky that we hadn't landed right on top of one.

"Stay here," I tell him, deciding to venture off into the forest on my own. If he's wandering around with me through the trees, then he would certainly trigger one of the traps, and I wasn't willing to let a wandering group of trappers catch him in one of those things.

Hacking away at the undergrowth, I kept my eyes peeled, playing it more carefully than I should have. I spent at least three seconds inspecting the ground before I decided whether or not it would be safe to put my foot down. The last thing I would want is a bunch of what I once was finding me in a net.

The trend continued for about five more minutes as I headed to where I guessed the roar came from. It had reduced itself to a barely audible whimper that seemed to go on endlessly. The consistency helped me to some degree with tracking down the dragon in the forest.

Soon, my foot bumped into something hard, and I almost stumbled over into a nearby bush. Looking down at what I just bumped into, I found a bunch of rocks strewn across the floor. The whimpers grew louder, followed by what sounded like a chain.

I pushed aside a branch in front of me to reveal a Snafflefang with its left front leg in a trap. The dragon lunged straight at me, trying its best to reach me before the chain attached to the trap reached its fullest extent and held it back. I tried to back off, but ended up tripping over the rocks.

Grumbling to myself in annoyance for failing to notice that it was still there, I stood back up and pulled the branch back again to get a closer look. Now I know that it can't reach me, and that the only thing I have to watch out for is its fire.

Rustling in the undergrowth on the other side of the trap, along with several voices. That was enough for me to release the branch again and move to a different spot—I knew that somehow, I will have to get this dragon out.

"Look what we've got here, another Snafflefang," says one of the trappers.

"Where do you figure we should put this one?" another asks. I settled with spying on them from behind, knowing that they wouldn't turn around because they are completely focused on their catch.

Silence for a few seconds before a third spoke up. "Put it with the others back home," he says.

"But Jarl," the first one starts, "we've already got about six of these things alone in the cages back home. Any more, and we'll run out of space. I mean, we've only got about four Raincutters, two Scauldrons, several Gronckles and Nadders, a Rumblehorn, a Whispering Death… just too much to count. You sure you're not building another dragon army?"

Dragon army. Those last two words were the ones that kept me from diverting my attention. They also mentioned a Rumblehorn…could it have been Skullcrusher?

I shook my head right away from the thought. There was no way they could have lured Skullcrusher into a trap and come back here this quickly, not to mention from the opposite direction. I breathed deeply, assuming that it was just a different Rumblehorn they had.

"Believe me, Drago is long gone and nothing but just a bad memory," says Jarl. "I've made it clear many times before that I have no intentions on building another dragon army. We'll get rid of them once we're back home, how's that sound?"

By getting rid of them, I guess that implied killing them. I can't stop these three on my own with just Skullcrusher on an island dotted with dragon traps waiting for some unlucky dragon to step on them, so I decided that it would be best to back away and inform Hiccup of this after I deliver the message to the village about his location.

The second time I planted my foot on the ground, a twig snapped beneath the boot. I bit my lip, squeezed my eyes shut, and breathed deeply before opening them again—there's no way I'm going to get out of here unspotted.

Jarl was the first one to turn around out of all three. He was the shortest and thinnest of the three, and he couldn't be any older than thirty. His eyes widened upon seeing me. "Well, I'll be damned," he says under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear.

"Eret, son of Eret?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my mind, an optimal chapter length ranges anywhere from 3K word to 8K words, so expect most chapters to be around that length. You can expect another chapter around Saturday.


	3. Chapter III: An Old Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now Eret has no choice but to play along with the trapper, and Hiccup's project to rebuild the nest gets off to a fiery start.

ERET

I stood there, facing the trapper named Jarl, planted to the ground. He knows my name?

"You're alive?" says Jarl.

"First of all, how do you know who I am?" I ask him. If I don't want any trouble right now, I would have to choose every single word carefully—one wrong word could send me right into a net.

"I think I would know the name of the finest dragon trapper alive," he says lightheartedly, as if this whole thing was a joke, but this was no laughing matter. I have to find out what he's still doing, trapping dragons without anyone to serve.

Dragon trapping was my old life—now, I'm actually working for what really is the right thing on Berk, but no one ever told me that trapping was still a trend throughout the archipelago! I thought trappers, most of which who were forced into service by Drago, would stop once they even caught a slight glimpse of Berk, but apparently it didn't seem that way.

"Is it true," Jarl speaks up before I could say a single word, "that you encountered the rarest dragon species to ever exist, i.e. the Night Fury?"

I couldn't help but nod and utter a weak "yes" as numerous thoughts began swimming around in my head.

On one hand, I could try to escape right now, find a diversion and get out of here and head straight to Berk. I can deliver the message that Hiccup handed me, which I just realized was still secured on Skullcrusher's saddle, along with the added bonus of knowing that dragon trapping was still a popular 'sport' in the archipelago.

My other choice would be to keep up this façade and follow Jarl just to find out a bit more on what's been going on. Is this just another small three-man gang of trappers that someone like Valka could easily scare off, or is there something worse back at their own village?

Nearly panicking, I picked the second path. "In fact, I've also had a run-in with the dragon's rider," I say, continuing the act. "And his girlfriend, who rode a Deadly Nadder."

Another roar from nearby, and I just realized I had forgotten completely about the Snafflefang that was sitting right here, immobile.

"Wow. That must have been something to try to escape from," says Jarl, silencing the Snafflefang. "But uh… how exactly did you survive?"

"Meaning…"

"How did you get away from Drago after he ordered you to be thrown into the freezing-cold water that day? Come on, I know you remember that day when he ordered your execution after he found out you unintentionally revealed his camp's location to Berk."

The only thing is, Astrid was just bluffing that day. Sure, we have tracker dragons back at Berk, but no one there actually figured out the location of that camp. Drago was simply under the impression that I carelessly led the entire village of Berk to his camp, and that seemed to become the widespread idea among his followers.

"Uh…" I start, thinking of a quick lie, "I managed to struggle free before they threw me in. Cut the ropes and snuck away right before they went to that nest. Are you someone who delivered dragons to Drago to feed his army?"

It was partially true—we did manage to free ourselves, but we never snuck away. Instead, we had gotten the dragons out at the nest and fought Drago there.

"Well," starts Jarl, "I don't know how else to put it, so yeah. I wasn't all that great, not nearly as good as you, but I too did sneak away with a few right before Drago embarked to the nest."

"Huh. Defiant one, eh?"

Jarl nodded. "Yeah, I guess you can say that for the both of us.

"But changing the topic, what are you doing out here on this island?"

Time to lie again. "Uh… I've been out lately, and a few hours ago, my boat crashed, sunk, and I landed on this island," I say, trying to keep a straight face to avoid any giveaways.

I almost cringed at what I had just said. What a terrible lie it was—mostly because there's nothing to back it up.

"Oh, I see," he says, "you know, you're lucky to spend hours in these forests without stepping on any of the traps or getting caught by any wild dragons."

"Well, I did spot them the moment I stepped into the forest, so it was no real surprise, but I really am lucky that none of the wild dragons caught me. I don't know the way home, but it's not like I really have a way to get back anyway."

"Hmm. How about this, you can stay in my village for now, while you try to find your way back," Jarl offers.

"Seriously? You would do that?" My eyes widened, stunned that he would even consider offering something like that.

"Don't sweat it," he says.

Well, it wasn't like I had a choice. It's simply illogical to refuse and try to leave on Skullcrusher. If I just run off right now for Skullcrusher, then I'll probably end up in a trap and they'll know who I really am. But if I say yes, that would mean leaving Skullcrusher on this island.

But saying yes would also mean I could learn more about what this guy's up to. "I don't see why I shouldn't come," I say.

"Good," he says brightly, taking out a bit of dragon nip from his pocket and rubbing it on the Snafflefang's snout. The dragon fell onto its side immediately, half of its tongue hanging out of its mouth.

They're trapping with dragon nip, of all things? It's meant to calm dragons, yes, and it's a dangerous thing when it's in the hands of a group of trappers. What other unorthodox methods could he possibly be using?

Jarl noticed me eyeing the grass carefully, and he held it up to show me. "Dragon nip. It has a calming effect on most dragons and can even—"

"I know what it does," I interrupt him midsentence.

He curled his hand into a fist before letting it fall back to his side, hiding the dragon nip. "Oh," he says, "okay. Let's head on home before anything else comes by."

The three of them turned away toward the edge of the island, to where their boat was. I glanced back in the direction Skullcrusher was in, knowing that any attempt to escape now would not end pretty.

But by leaving on a ship, I'm putting Skullcrusher in a grave situation as well. He's on an island in which one could not even travel a few meters without reaching a trap; he's simply waiting for someone to get to him in that clearing, and gods know who it will be—hopefully it would be a Berkian.

Once we reached the same ship I had spotted while flying—the one loaded with orthodox dragon trapping equipment, the three tied up the Snafflefang, placed a muzzle, and threw it into a cage. When they released it, the dragon threw its body against the bars to no avail. The ship started to drift east, toward Jarl's village.

Sometime in the middle of the voyage I drifted off, and when I woke up the stars were already shining proudly over the ocean. It seemed calm, though I knew that less than fifteen feet away from me sat a tied up Snafflefang in a cage that, evidently, fell asleep in exhaustion after endless struggling. That, or they just used dragon nip to put it to sleep.

We were approaching an island that, at first glance, looked quite similar to Berk, in that there was a village located on the side of a hill and the Great Hall. Toward the bottom of the cliffs was a series of tunnels, and there was even a forest that covered the uncivilized half of the island.

The boat pulled up at the docks, and Jarl was the first one out. I followed closely, finding that much of the village was going to sleep at the time. Jarl pointed at the other men on the ship. "Leave the Snafflefang where it is," he says. "We'll come and pick it up in the morning. In the meantime, Eret," he turned to me, "we'll just need to find you a place to stay.

I turned my head toward the village, then to the ocean, then back to see the village. "You seem to generous," I say, "but one again I don't think I can really deny that offer. Why are you doing this?"

"Because you, Eret, Son of Eret, are the finest dragon trapper alive," he responds.

 _Was,_ I think. _I was the finest dragon trapper alive._ Oh, he's going to be very disappointed when he finds out that I've stopped trapping—for a good reason—and started a new life on Berk.

 _No. If he finds out._ I've already fed him numerous lies. It won't hurt to tell a few more, and doing so will save my skin while I'm on this island. Also, while I'm at it, I should figure out what this guy's been up to—what methods he uses, the size of his fleet, etc.

As we trod through the village uphill, toward the Great Hall, I noticed that as we progressed, the houses in the village began to grow larger, and the general appearance of the exteriors of each home grew more appealing.

Jarl's house was located at the top of the hill, nearest to the Great Hall. From this point, we could see everything in the village, and I took note of a ring separated from the village. It was roofed with chains, and I could almost see a line of cages along the wall. Just like Berk.

I was given a completely vacant house to reside in for the night. "Don't worry. The previous owner of this house has gone out questing and hasn't returned for three months. I'm sure he won't notice that someone stayed in there for a night or two when he returns."

 _He said "when he returns," not "if he returns,"_ I think. There must be something about the owner of this house that kept his hopes up, something about the owner of the house that makes Jarl say "when" and not "if", even after three months. That, or he may have been trying to make me not feel guilty for taking one of the finest houses in the village for free.

So I entered the house and watched from a window as he continued the rest of the way uphill to his own home. This house had just a bed, a table, and room for a fireplace—a two-room house.

My mind went back to Skullcrusher, and how I just left him there with no sign on where I was going. It was the worst situation to leave him in, surrounded by a load of traps.

I'm going to go back to that island and find Skullcrusher, no matter how long I have to wait.

* * *

HICCUP

"First step," I start, "is to get rid of that alpha's body."

We were flying over the sanctuary, and I noticed just how run-down it looked on one side. Most of that was due to the presence of the Bewilderbeast's decaying body, and I wasn't exactly sure how many dragons it would take to move that behemoth.

"And how, exactly, are we supposed to move something that large?" asks Snotlout. "Even all together, we won't be able to make that thing budge. I think we all know that it would take the power of at least sixty. So much for throwing it into the ocean."

"Well, we can always send for a few more," I say, but right away I questioned whether it would be best to head back to Berk ourselves after sending Eret out—man, I should have told him to also request a few more Vikings to come over.

Snotlout scoffed. "Did you hear me? I said it would take sixty—most likely more than that—to move the entire thing! A few more isn't going to help, Hiccup."

But I wasn't exactly planning on moving the entire body all at once. "We're not going to move the entire thing. We're just going to drop them in bit by bit," I say, prompting everyone to land near what was left of one of its tusks.

Once everyone was on the ground next to me, I began to mark the spot where we would blow the entire thing off. "If we're going to dispose of this thing bit by bit, then how many trips do you think we'll have to make out to sea?" asks Astrid.

I shrugged. "I don't know, I'm guessing it's going to depend on how big each part is, but I do want to get both tusks out right away."

It took about five minutes for me to mark a target with a charcoal stick, one big enough that the markings were visible from afar. I didn't want anyone standing too close to the tusks when we blast them off—a roller could easily flatten anyone, no matter their size.

Deciding to position everyone on a ledge outside the sanctuary, I looked down to the Bewilderbeast's body to find that the target was there, though it still looked rather small from up here; the charcoal markings stood out on the ivory tusks.

I raised my hand, and everyone waited for my signal to start firing in order to blow the Bewilderbeast's tusk off. Then I swung my hand down and pointed at the Bewilderbeast. "Fire!"

But I stopped Toothless from firing just as a dark blue streak began to glow from his head down to his tail. I watched as Barf and Belch flew in along with a wave of outgoing blasts coming from Stormfly, Hookfang, and Meatlug. One, two, three, four, five shots from each, and Barf began to release as much gas as possible onto the tusk.

One more shot from Stormfly, Hookfang, and Meatlug, and all the gas Barf just released lit up. Then Toothless drew back and fired one of the quickest plasma blasts I have ever seen, blowing the Bewilderbeast's tusk clean off.

"Now," I start, turning to the others, "does anyone have some rope, or chains, or something that would help us carry it out to sea?"

I received blank stares from the rest of the group, which sent me the clear message that no one had anything that would help us move the tusk into the ocean.

"No?" guesses Tuffnut.

But I waved it off, saying, "That's okay. We can continue breaking down the body for now and send for more later."

So we rested, allowing all the dragons to recharge their shots—just that single tusk took all six shots from Meatlug and Stormfly, and although Hookfang still had four left after that, I decided that it would just be best for him not to exhaust himself.

After a couple of hours that included a short feeding time and leisure flights, I decided to mark the other tusk, and then the dragons began firing away at it as well. Again, there were five shots before Barf released the gas, and then one more to set it off before Toothless fired another plasma blast, ultimately blowing it off.

"That should be enough for now," I tell everyone. "I think we ought to head back for the night."

We all mounted our dragons and took off from the island. Even though the sky hasn't begun to darken yet, I knew that it would take about an hour or so to get back to Berk.

Once we did get back to Berk, I wasn't quite satisfied to find my mother looking quite cross—she seemed to stare at me with a disappointed scowl as we landed. "Where were you all day?" she asks.

"Uh…" I start, "did Eret not tell you that we were at the nest?" I looked around to find that Eret was nowhere to be found in the crowd, and neither was Skullcrusher.

"No," she says. "He never came. We all thought he was with you guys!"

"Well, that's weird because I sent him back here once they found me at the nest to tell you guys that I would be there for a while."

"For what reason?" she asks. I started toward the workshop, and she and Gobber both followed.

Turning around and shifting to a backwards walk, I said, "We can rebuild that place—I mean, maybe it's farther from here than Dragon Island, but at least it's another nest."

"How do you plan on handling that?"

"Simple. We just clear whatever's left of that battle there, finish cleaning the place up and make it suitable for dragons to live there again, and voila! We have ourselves another place where dragons can live out of the way of hunters, and trappers, and other tribes, and other tyrant dragons… and…" I trailed off for a few seconds before finishing my sentence, "pretty much everything that puts them at risk."

She nodded as we entered the workshop. "Okay, that sounds fine, now let's go back to talking about how you sent Eret back here from the nest."

"I told you. I sent him back to Berk, and according to pretty much everyone in the village, it seems like he hasn't returned," I answer. "I don't know what could have happened to him. He could have gotten lost, although that really shouldn't happen because he has Skullcrusher, or he could have just went out for a while, I don't know. Worst case scenario, he landed in a dragon-fighting tribe."

Inside the workshop, Grump lurched forward before spitting a fireball, setting a nearby table on fire.

Gobber casually pulled a nearby rope, and the table was doused with water; the fire went out, leaving only a few black marks on the wood.

"Eh, I don't have any suggestions, but I say you kids are going to have to hunt him down before he catches one of his former colleagues," says Gobber, pulling out a hammer and locking it onto his prosthetic.

"Fine. I'll send a search party out tomorrow."


	4. Chapter IV: Methods and a Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few Berkians believe that Eret betrayed them, but Hiccup insists otherwise.

HICCUP

The morning came in what seemed like no time at all, and soon I would have to go with Astrid and Snotlout to look for Eret. Groggily, I left the house at the top of the slope and found Toothless resting on the roof and staring down at me in anticipation.

Although the village was buzzing with activity now that some of the Vikings have woken up, it was still a little quieter than usual. The sun hung low to the east, and the buildings cast looming shadows.

I raced to the academy, trying to snap myself awake along the way. Once I reached the ring, I found that both Astrid and Snotlout were already waiting for me. Astrid had her arms crossed and was holding a smirk on her face.

"Tardy, chief," teases Astrid.

I waved it off. "So, you do know that because you have the tracking dragon, you're going to be leading this entire search."

"Yes, I do," Astrid replies. "She's already got a good sniff at a few things inside Eret's house, so we should be good to go whenever you are."

"Excellent! Snotlout." I glanced at Snotlout, who mounted his Monstrous Nightmare. Astrid was already on Stormfly's back, and I on Toothless's.

"Right!" he exclaims.

The three of us took off from the academy in the direction of the sanctuary. Chances are, Eret went out somewhere between Berk and the sanctuary—he, of all people, would know better than to deviate from a path or mistake Berk for some dragon hunting village, which would be impossible because the Berk crest is emblazoned on banners beside the Meade Hall!

Hookfang and Toothless kept Snotlout and me behind Astrid and Stormfly. Stormfly twitched a bit to the left and tried to turn in the direction, so that was where we went. As we soared above the open ocean, passing by an island every now and then, Stormfly would twitch in one way or another. Even the slightest motion would send us in that direction.

Then she signaled down to one of the islands below us, and we decided to land low just in case anyone was present on the island. It was a forest island, and only one side contained a cliff face. On the other sides were beaches, perfect for anchoring a ship.

So the dragons landed on a patch of sand, and we dismounted.

"Okay," I say, "so, do you want to take Stormfly to help us track him down on this island, or do you want to search this island alone and call for them if anything goes wrong?"

"I say we go on our own," suggests Snotlout.

Astrid started toward the trees. "Something doesn't fit in here. Why would Eret land on this island, which just looks like a simple forest? What is so special about this island that made Eret land here and not on any of the other forest islands in the archipelago?"

Snotlout and I exchanged glances and shrugged. "No idea," I say, "but if you think we should leave the dragons here to rest on the beach, then that's what we'll do."

I held out a hand and signaled for Toothless to stay where he was on the sand. "Make sure no one goes anywhere," I tell him before turning back to the forest.

Stepping in front of Astrid and Snotlout, I entered the crowd of trees first before immediately backing away when I saw that something was off—there laid a perfectly placed patch of leaves on the floor, surrounded by nothing but open ground and the occasional bush. "I think there are traps on this island," I say.

"Oh, come on! What are you so paranoid about?" asks Snotlout, stepping in front of the two of us. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with this island."

"You know, Snotlout, that it's only paranoia when there's no danger around," I reply. "Fine, but at least keep your eyes peeled for dragon traps."

He scoffed. "Tut-tut, Hiccup, Hiccup, Hiccup, if you're going to be backing off from everything because you're afraid of something that simply isn't there, then I guess I'm going to have to take the driver's seat for now and…" he took one step forward, straight onto the pile of leaves, and the next thing we knew his body had shot straight up.

Astrid and I simply watched him as he wriggled in the swinging net, totally helpless in the mesh. If anything, struggling seemed to make his situation a bit worse. "So, Snotlout, who here, exactly, is paranoid one now?" teases Astrid.

"Uh… a little help here?" he wheezes from above our heads. "Augh! Fine, I take back what I just said, if that's what you're asking for."

Astrid and I exchanged quick glances, exchanging a laugh as I reached for Inferno. I wasn't searching for an apology to begin with. I deployed the fire blade, and with one slash the bottom of the net was open. Snotlout fell six feet straight to the ground, narrowly missing my foot by inches.

"Is that enough to prove to you that you should at least keep a sharp eye?" I ask him, pulling him up.

He brushed off his tunic and nodded, and we all turned away from the beach.

As we weaved through the undergrowth and past the tree trunks, I found that there were an atrocious amount of traps on the island—every now and then, I would disarm one only to find that three more sat right next to it. A few of them we set off intentionally without any victims to catch just for the sake of moving on without taking the extra time needed to completely destroy them.

"You'd think dragon trappers could at least lighten up on the amount of traps on this island," I say before spotting a small amount of dragon nip near a net. "And they've only grown smarter."

"Dragon nip?" asks Astrid. "What trapper would think about using that?"

"Actually, when you think of it, dragon nip can put a dragon to sleep. Gives a trapper the perfect window of time to sneak up and… I guess you can decide what happens next," I explain.

"You sound like Fishlegs," says Snotlout.

I shot him a puzzled look. "Okay…I guess?"

Snotlout stuttered and added another line to the end of his sentence. "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

We continued past another net trap. For about another hour we continued looking around the island before Snotlout burst out complaining again.

"How do we even know that Eret's on this island?" he exclaims. Neither of us were expecting him to start talking all of a sudden, as no one had raised their voices past a slight inconceivable whisper in the past hour.

"We don't," Astrid answers him. "Stormfly led us here, and if the dragons can't handle themselves in the forest on this island because of the innumerable amount of traps, then I'm afraid we'll have to search this island completely before we can conclude that he's not on this island."

We came to a clearing. "How about this? We'll start heading back soon and let Stormfly have another sniff, and see if that dragon was wrong in leading us here," suggests Snotlout.

"And if she was right to begin with, then we would have spent a whole hour getting back and another hour to reach this place again," I say. "I'm just suggesting that it would be best if we search the rest of the island before going back."

"Uh… guys?" starts Astrid.

Snotlout cut her off. "Not now Astrid," he says before turning back to me. "Well, I'm saying we've gone a whole hour having found nothing but a bunch of traps. What's that supposed to tell us? I mean, we haven't found any trail or any leads that tell us Eret's on this island, so—"

"Shut up, Snotlout!" Astrid bursts out, and I ran up next to her to see what she was facing.

Upon seeing what—no, who—was in the clearing, my jaw dropped. He was all alone there, standing completely still. He seemed paralyzed, completely aware of all the traps in the area. It already surprised me enough that he hadn't fallen into any of them yet.

"Skullcrusher?"

His eyes locked onto us, and right away he bounded straight toward us without hesitating.

* * *

ERET

When I woke up, I first thought I was back in my own little hut a Berk, ready to find Skullcrusher outside. I was staring up at the ceiling, and it resembled the ceiling of my shelter on Berk quite a bit—not that ceilings of buildings made of the same material could look that different anyway.

Then everything came back to me as I realized where I was—I was in Jarl's village, and seeing how he occupied the house at the top of the hill, I assumed he was at least related to the chief, if not the chief himself.

I left the house and thought right away about stealing a ship to get back to the island, but I dismissed the thought immediately. They would catch me before I could even get off the island. And if I do get off the island, they'll just sink the ship or do something to pull me back in.

So there's no getting off this island for now. I decided to head to the village's arena which, not surprisingly, housed several dragons in open cages. To be specific, the arena held a Gronckle, a Deadly Nadder, a Whispering Death, and a Hideous Zippleback. Nothing extraordinary.

There, in the middle of the arena, was probably the ugliest looking thing I have ever seen. Jarl stepped forward, blocking my view of what was on the ground. "Ah, glad to see that you're up now! I bet you're wondering what this is, am I right?" He leaned over and picked up the object behind him. I nodded.

"It's called dragon root," he says, "basically dragon nip's counterpart. It makes a dragon go berserk! No, not a Berserk, like the tribe, but just berserk as in the 'it can't control itself' kind of berserk… you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, sure, sure, I've got everything you just said," I reply. In fact, I already knew a fair bit about the plant—there was an entry in the book of dragons, and I would skim through the book once in a while. It was enough to catch at least the most vital information about the plant, but I didn't pay attention to any other details, such as where it grew.

"Good. I can't really demonstrate right now because," he let out a light chuckle, "they'd probably tear this place apart if I gave it to them."

"So, I was just wondering, what else do you guys use in trapping? Like, there's the obvious part about luring, but then each individual dragon is different, and I'm thinking that there's a different method that's best for trapping each dragon."

He walked over to the Gronckle cage. "Glad you asked that question. You see here," he waved the dragon root in front of the Gronckle bound to the back of the wall by chains. The Gronckle struggled to break free, but to no avail, yet the thing didn't go wild when presented with the dragon root.

"The Gronckle is immune to the effects of dragon root," says Jarl. "The more you know, the better. That means we can't use dragon root when it comes to trapping."

"But why would you want to use dragon root in the first place if all it would do is make a dragon go berserk?" I ask.

"To cause discordance in a pack," says Jarl. "You can just casually plant the root in a dragon-heavy area that is, obviously, safe, and then chaos ensues. The dragons will take each other out, which will let us go in once they're all drained."

I nodded again. "Strange methods, you're using, my friend. Methods that, if at least half of the trappers didn't turn a deaf ear to others or used their brains properly, Drago could have won through the use of.

"But," I start again before Jarl could say anything, "it's just not anyone in the world who can take down a Night Fury. He's called the 'Dragon Master', the rider I encountered that day."

His head turned to face me the second I mentioned 'taking down a Night Fury'. "Ah, I see. So how did you take down the Night Fury, if that's what you're implying? I mean, I know you had to escape from it later, but… what exactly happened?"

Again, I need to lie right now. Or at least, I can start with the truth and deviate from that path later on.

"I didn't," I answer him. "I didn't take him down. He gave himself up and told us to take him to Drago, which we didn't because he ran off later. He said he wanted to change his mind about dragons, that there can be peace between Vikings and dragons."

"Did you believe him?"

"Of course I didn't believe him!" I exclaim. I had to say that it was the most believable lie I have ever told. "Heck, after the boy ran off and his friends found their way into the hideout, his girl's Nadder almost smothered me."

"Ouch." He gritted his teeth as if trying to imagine how uncomfortable it would be to have a dragon sitting on him.

Then we moved on to another one of their trapping methods. Near the Zippleback cage stood a bin, and Jarl reached inside to pull out a slimy eel. His eyes widened and he pinched his nose to block the horrid smell, and I soon followed once the scent reached my nose. We both breathed through our mouths.

"Oh gods, that's gross," he says, turning to the Zippleback. "This isn't really used for trapping; I would say this is used for defending yourself in a dragon attack, unless said dragon is a Typhoomerang. If so, then just pray you'll get out alive."

Jarl tossed the eel into the cage before the Zippleback could even puff out enough gas to do anything, and instantly the dragon stopped and pressed both of its heads to the back wall of the cage.

"You can essentially lay out a bunch of eels around the village, and then the only dragon you'll be worrying about is the Typhoomerang," says Jarl. "You'll pretty much eliminate all other dragons while, in exchange, be facing attacks from Typhoomerangs all the time."

So they don't want to prevent dragon raids? "Then why don't you guys do it here?" I ask him, reaching into the bin to pick up another eel.

"Because they're difficult to obtain when you're not on Eel Island, and Eel Island is impossible to access because of all the dragons around it. Even if it may just be Typhoomerangs, they're still 'extremely dangerous'. Also, I know you've already noticed, but they reek!"

"Then find something you can do to keep Typhoomerangs off your ships, or you can find eels from a different source," I suggest.

"And that's what I've been trying to do lately, but Eel Island is pretty much the only place you can find one of those blasted things without having to go far and wide, and it's too much of a hazard to approach that place," says Jarl. "We were lucky to get this batch from a seafaring trader last week."

Then where did their other methods go? Wouldn't dragon nip work on a Typhoomerang, or perhaps they can drop dragon root in different places to keep their attention off the ship?

"You see, the key to being able to do this so well, to being a trapper, is to know what each dragon likes and dislikes, and exploit it. You said it yourself. Every dragon has a blind spot, every dragon is unique in its own way, etcetera. You know what I mean."

Well, at least it's nice to know that Berkians aren't the only ones who actually use their heads—knowing of other tribes still fighting dragons, they're all brutes whose brawn makes up for their brain. Usually, it's not a very good thing.

But at the same time, it's a bit intimidating to know that someone actually has access to this. What he can possibly accomplish—what his goals are—is daunting. If everything is lined up the way it should be, then he could potentially wipe out thousands of dragons.

So right away, I began to compose a plan in my head to escape this island, one that I would have to execute with perfect timing if I want to get away undetected. The earlier I get back to Berk, the better, but then two things came to my mind.

If I stay here longer, then I would be able to find out a bit more about this guy and what exactly he has behind him.

Also, there's no way I would be able to find my way back to Berk by ship—I realized that I would have to return to Berk by dragon, and the only ones here that I know of are the ones here in the arena. I'll have to train them and ride away, all in the course of a single night to avoid being spotted.

 _Tonight,_  I think,  _I'll get out of here._

"But enough about Eel Island and Typhoomerangs," says Jarl, changing the subject. "There's something more urgent right now, something we'll need to take care of quicker.

"You see, stories say that this so-called 'Dragon Master' defeated the Red Death at a nest, yes?" says Jarl.

"What exactly is on your mind now?" I ask him.

"Well, we've got some nesting problem with our own island," he answers. "Off west there's another dragon nest. We know there's two main types of nests—the ice fortress, which is ruled by a Bewilderbeast, or the dormant volcano, which is ruled by something like the Red Death."

Am I really that far from Berk to encounter another nest that nobody else has even heard of? "Well, what are you thinking of doing concerning this nest?"

"If we find the nest and destroy it, then the dragons have no one controlling them," he says.

There's something someone with the mindset of 'brawn over brain' would think—the 'brain over brawn' mindset would imply that destroying the nest would not cause dragons to leave, but there will be no one to lead them. No alpha. Some other force would have to push the dragons out of the nest if their alpha dies.

"Do you know what kind of nest it is?" I ask as Jarl starts leaving the arena.

"Volcano," he says quickly, starting on a path toward the Great Hall.

I didn't know which one I would have hoped for—to kill a nest's alpha is extremely difficult, while the featured alpha dragon would have different characteristics. The Red Death can fly and is a typical fire-breather. The Bewilderbeast can't fly, spits ice, and can control dragons more easily.

Once we reached the Great Hall, Jarl pushed open the door to reveal a crowd inside, surrounding a huge nautical map laid out across the table. It displayed every known island in the archipelago.

"So, we all know why I called this meeting, correct?" says Jarl, stepping up onto a podium so everyone could see him. His voice silenced the entire crowd.

"We all know why we're here," says a man.

"Good," Jarl replies. "So, in about two weeks there's going to be another meeting to talk about the dragon scourge that many tribes still face today."

A woman toward the back raised her hand. "You're sure you're going to go through with this? Last time one of these happened, Drago burned the entire hall to the ground."

Some stirring in the hall, which Jarl silenced immediately. "Drago is dead. I'm confident that there will be no one to ruin the party this time."

Drago is dead—there's no way he can't be dead if he had to swim with only one arm.

So there's another word to deliver. If Hiccup can go to this meeting in two weeks—I recollected Stoick's tale of having gone to the one Drago spoiled—then he can at least do something that would be beneficial to all of the tribes of the archipelago, even if it might not be uniting dragons and Vikings.

I have to leave tonight.

I don't think I have any other choice.


	5. Chapter V: Let's Not Jump to Conclusions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eret puts his plan to escape into effect.

HICCUP

I stared at the dragon in shock, allowing him to bowl me over. This clearing seemed to be the only place on the island that wasn't littered with traps, other than the beach. That told me he was stuck in this clearing for gods-know-how-long.

"Wha— how—" I stutter. "So this is why Stormfly had us land on the island? Because she found Skullcrusher and not Eret."

"I knew it!" exclaims Snotlout through gritted teeth. "Once a trapper, always a trapper, and Hiccup, you have to remember that he was the best trapper to ever live. He's probably planned this whole thing out and can be with some other guy plotting to destroy Berk."

I shook my head in denial. There's no way Eret, son of Eret, despite being the best trapper, would suddenly turn his back just like that. Two months on Berk is long enough for anyone to grow a real soft spot for dragons. "Now, Snotlout, let's not jump to conclusions just yet," I say. "All we know is that Skullcrusher is here, but that doesn't exactly mean Eret left him here on purpose. He could still be on this island, or he could have gotten lost and Skullcrusher ended up here somehow—there's just too many possibilities and not enough evidence."

"Fine," he hisses, "but when we meet him again, unless he provides a believable reason for leaving his dragon here who, mind him, used to be Stoick's dragon, then don't expect me to treat him all too well when we find him."

"Now, since when do you believe anyone else's side of a story?" I ask him.

He glanced at Astrid for assistance, but she refused to lend him a hand. "Never," he replies. "Okay, fine! Maybe I wouldn't believe his side of the story anyway, but when we find him, expect something from me."

" _Something_ ," says Astrid, emphasizing the word. " _Something._  So, that essentially means you have no idea what you're going to do to him."

"Whatever."

"Guys, come on. We found Skullcrusher here, and I think that's a good enough find to at least head back to Berk, regroup, and tell everyone about what we found out here," I say.

"Traps," Snotlout spits. "What else?" he asks with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

I mounted Skullcrusher. "Hop on," I say.

"Wait. What?" asks Snotlout, shocked at my spontaneous decision to ride Skullcrusher. "Are you serious about having us ride Skullcrusher back to the beach?"

"Well, what do you want to do? He can't get through the forest without stepping into traps, no matter how many we've already set off or disarmed," I tell him. "Besides, I thought you wanted to make up for that hour we lost trekking through the forest?"

"I didn't say anything about making it up; I was just talking about how much time we lost from walking all that time."

Astrid mounted behind me, closely followed by Snotlout. It became quite crowded on the saddle, as it wasn't really designed for three riders all at once. Even as we took off, it felt like Skullcrusher was struggling despite having supported my father's weight many times before without fail.

The ride back to the beach only took a few minutes, though Skullcrusher did stumble a few times along the way. We had to stop once just because Snotlout complained saying he felt like he was falling off the saddle, and it nearly sent Skullcrusher's hind legs into a net.

Once we reached the beach, Skullcrusher landed quite ungracefully. He narrowly missed clipping a tree in the forest.

"Saddle up. We're going home first, and then we'll take Skullcrusher along when we head out again," I say.

So we took off about a minute later, Snotlout mumbling some less-than-nice words under his breath. Back toward Berk, and the flight went rather uneventful—we took it a bit slower so we wouldn't put too much pressure on Skullcrusher to fly faster than he can.

When the island came into view, I decided to pick up the pace and zoomed straight toward the middle of the village, landing Toothless with no regard to the person rolling a cart in our direction. He stumbled back right before ramming the front of the cart right into Toothless.

"Sorry," I say before he could utter a single word, bolting straight for the workshop.

"Gobber!" I call, throwing a door open and finding the belch sharpening a sword over a wheel.

He took note of my presence without removing his eyes from the wheel. "Back so soon, eh? So what could you have possibly found in three and a half hours of searching?"

"So, Stormfly led us to an island filled with traps. Just traps. If you could clear the forest without touching a single one, not even a Terrible Terror would be able to land without getting entangled in a net," I tell him. "But there were a few spots void of traps, and after searching for a while, we came across Skullcrusher—of all the dragons we could come across, it wasn't a wild one, Gobber."

Gobber lifted the sword from the wheel and eyed me for about a second. "So, did you give that dragon a sniff?"

"No," I reply. "If Stormfly found Skullcrusher instead of Eret, then I'm guessing we didn't have anything that really has Eret's scent on it; it's part of the reason we came back here, but I'm afraid that if Eret went out on an island filled with traps, then it's likely that someone took him."

"You know, you worry an awful lot for someone who has built up a bad reputation from years of trapping experience," says Gobber. "Your side of the story makes me think that he left Skullcrusher there and picked up a ride from fellow trappers, but I just don't want to think that."

I heaved a sigh. "Is everyone jumping to conclusions like that? Well, at least you don't want to think he left Skullcrusher there on purpose. I will always believe, one hundred percent, that Eret did not purposely leave Skullcrusher in a clearing on a forest island, and that there was some reason for it."

And there goes my decision—I will not tell anyone that Eret left his Rumblehorn on that island until I am certain that he did turn his back on our village. And if it turns out that something just interrupted him on his way back to Berk from the nest, I still won't tell anyone about it.

Mom appeared in the workshop all of a sudden, taking me by surprise. It seemed like she just hopped straight out of the shadow by the doorway.

"Mom! You're here!" I exclaim. "Uh… we didn't find Eret, but—"

"I know," she says, cutting me off mid-sentence. "I came looking for you because of that because I want to know about how long we can expect it to be until you guys find him."

I thought about it for a second. If we leave again right now without taking a break, then we can expect to be back with Eret by nightfall. If we take a few hours off, then it should be past nighttime when we return. I didn't even consider holding off the search until tomorrow—that would just be too long.

"Probably sometime tonight," I say, "expect the entire village to be asleep when he rolls back around."

I then made the decision in my head to rest for a few hours before we set off with Skullcrusher again. There were definitely some items in his house that Skullcrusher could get a few good sniffs on, and then we should be able to track down his rider with ease.

After waiting a few hours—sunset was approaching when I regrouped with Astrid and Snotlout at the academy—we had Skullcrusher hovering above us, eager to set off and find his rider. The twins had decided to tag along thanks to Snotlout's inability to keep his mouth shut, which ultimately led to Fishlegs joining in as well. Basically, it was the entire group of six young adults, myself included, working together again just like before.

I did try to talk the twins and Fishlegs out of coming with us, but they just insisted. We only expected to be out there for a few hours, to find Eret and bring him back on Skullcrusher immediately. It wouldn't really require much manpower to accomplish, considering the fact that there won't be any fighting between anyone if the twins could keep their heads straight.

"All set?" I ask everyone as we all mounted our dragons.

Everyone held out a thumbs-up, meaning they were ready. I took off straight up, while the others took off away from the island. Hovering next to Skullcrusher, I held out several items from Eret's household that I assumed would be carrying Eret's scent.

Skullcrusher roared for a brief second before starting off toward the others, and we all followed closely behind him.

The path wasn't directly toward the sanctuary. Instead, the path seemed to deviate to the west a bit, which made me question how far Eret really was from that island we found Skullcrusher on. I knew that the longer this search took, the farther Eret managed to drift away from the path to Berk.

The sun began to set in front of us, and we watched as the sky darkened overhead, revealing the stars of night in the partly cloudy sky. As usual, we soared over nothing but open ocean for miles in all directions. As we watched the blue waves hundreds of feet below us, a Scauldron popped over the surface for about a second, then dove straight back under the water.

In front of us, Skullcrusher twitched and started down toward the ocean. I didn't notice it at first, but Toothless did, so when he also started down without warning, I came back to attention.

"Huh? What?" I ask, feeling tired after having blanked out on dragonback.

Someone gasped. "Look!" says Fishlegs. I glanced at him to find him pointing down at two figures above the water, and turned to see that it was a Gronckle and a Nadder. Someone was riding the Gronckle without a saddle.

"Eret!" I call out, deploying Inferno so he could tell where the Night Fury was in the air. I waved the embers around, knowing that it was a dead giveaway in the stealth of night.

Skullcrusher swooped down and scooped Eret from the dragon's back, and soon he pulled up beside us with Eret on the saddle. Both the Gronckle and the Nadder continued to fly with us on our path to Berk.

"Thank you, Skullcrusher. I honestly wasn't expecting you guys to come hunting for me," says Eret.

"Where have you been?" asks Astrid.

"Oh," starts Eret, "it's sort of a lot to take in."

* * *

ERET

Around evening, I decided that it was time to put my fiendishly clever—albeit crazy—plan to work. First, I started toward the now empty arena, where I knew there would be captured dragons waiting, longing to just be freed.

Then again, I could guess that unless someone actually sets them free, which is something no one here seemed to have the guts to even dare someone to do, they would live the rest of their lives in cages.

I wanted to make a quiet escape, but at the same time I also wanted to free all the dragons they were holding hostage in the arena. But then freeing all the dragons in the arena would be anything but quiet, and I was pretty sure that some would even try to take some shots at me simply for being human.

In one hand, I held a wad of dragon nip, just in case something would go wrong as I'm stealing a dragon from the arena. The other remained empty, and I knew I would have to go weaponless if I wanted to reduce the risk of having any of the dragons lashing out at me.

When I reached the arena, the Gronckle, who was previously sleeping as snugly as a dragon could when chained to a wall in a cell, leaped straight at me.

"Easy now," I say gently, finding the arena empty. Perfect. Now, just to calm down this Gronckle.

I reached the door, and again the Gronckle tried to take a bite out of me. Blaming the dragon didn't even cross my mind at the time—it hates me, like every other human it has crossed paths with, as it has never seen a dragon rider, only trappers.

"Please," I say, keeping my voice no louder than enough for the Gronckle to hear. "Just stay quiet. I'm going to get you out of here."

Still holding the dragon nip away, I opened the door to the age and crept inside, the Gronckle eyeing me carefully. One wrong move could blast me sky high—or in this case, right up to the ceiling, which would break my skull.

I set the plant down on the floor behind me and held my hands up to show him that I had no weapons on me. My heart began racing—there's no way I'm turning back right now, and should  _anyone_  in the village just happen to wander into the arena right now, that would be the end of me here. Maybe, just maybe, I can get off the island without revealing my new self to anyone, and I can get Jarl to believe that something just went horribly wrong in the arena and a dragon carried me off. With my sword still in the house I was given, it might just work.

I held my hand out—this is what matters the most. The decision of this one dragon, who seemed to have never known a human who cared for it, will determine whether I stay on the island or not.

I kept my hand there, dangerously close to the Gronckle's snout, just close enough so it could do what I was hoping it would do. "Please," I mutter under my breath.

Then it was what I had hoped for. The Gronckle pressed its snout into my hand, even though it had the ability to kill me right here. There was only one measly chain holding it down in the cell. No muzzle, nothing. It could have been destroyed with a few lava blasts, but it was so short that the Gronckle couldn't even find it.

A smile pulled at my face as I continued panting, and I pulled my hand away from the snout. Moving to the single chain that bound the Gronckle to the wall, I found that it required a key to open—one that would most likely be unobtainable, meaning I need to find another way to free this dragon.

"Hold on," I say, holding up a finger and starting toward the entrance to the arena. "I'll find a way to get those chains off."

Soon, I broke out into a sprint before stopping myself right away when I spotted a streak of blue in the corner of my eye. I turned over to it and spotted the Deadly Nadder that the village held captive here, eyeing me carefully as if pleading for me to set it free. This one was bound to a longer chain that it should be able to break easily, but there was also a muzzle and restraints on the tail to prevent its spines from extending.

 _Dare I do it?_  It's a plausible option. Otherwise, I would have to head to the village's blacksmith, take a hammer through thievery because there's no way anyone would give someone a hammer for free, and free the Gronckle. Then what do I do with the hammer? Surely, the blacksmith would notice that it was missing and soon there'd be some investigation going around the village. It would be bizarre to find that both a hammer and two of the arena's four dragons—and myself—have gone missing on the same day; it would definitely spur some sort of investigation that would ultimately end up with Jarl labeling me as a fugitive.

Not that I wasn't one—they would find out sooner or later that I'm trying to escape in order to avoid them. I would be preferable to have them find out later, when I'm over yonder and can't be tracked, or once I've fallen off the world.

So I decided to enter the Nadder's cage and start unbinding it, starting first and foremost with the muzzle on the snout. Just as a precaution, I stepped into the blind spot before working on pulling it off.

It came off with ease, and I tossed it aside to a corner of the cell, where no one would have to worry about it. Then I worked off the tail, and the spines extended the second the restraint was removed. I bolted over and smoothed the spines down.

"You think you can handle this?" I ask the Nadder, pointing at the chain that bound it to the wall.

The Nadder drew its head back as it faced the chain. It opened its maw, and a stream of the hottest fire one could witness washed itself over the chain. Then, before the embers could die out, the Nadder pulled as fiercely as it could away from the one thing that bound it in its cell, and a satisfying  _chink_  reached my ears. The Nadder squawked as loud as I have ever heard a Nadder squawk, and I rushed over to quiet it.

"Shush!" I demand, though I didn't raise my voice above a whisper. I began to guide the dragon out of its cell and toward the Gronckle, who perked up once again to see that I have returned. "We don't want anyone in the village to hear us."

I entered the Gronckle's cell and pointed at the extremely short chain that bound it to the wall. The Gronckle warbled and tried to take off, its two small wings beating at an incredible speed, but the chain reached its fullest extent. The Gronckle tried its best to aim at the chain and fired a lava blast straight at the floor before landing right next to it. The chain shook a bit, but remained intact.

I pointed at the chain and made eye contact with the Nadder. "You think you could help a bit?" I ask.

Again, the Nadder reeled its head back, and once again spewed out a good amount of fire at the chain, albeit carefully. The Gronckle continued to pull at the chain until it too snapped, and the Gronckle was free. Now it's just a matter of getting off the island unseen.

As I was about halfway across the arena with the dragons trailing a few meters behind me, I spotted someone appear at the arena's entrance. He pointed right behind me, and I snapped into an 'acting mode', turning around and taking a fighting stance to face the two dragons.

"Wha— how did this happen? What's this now?" the man at the entrance exclaims, starting to back away.

I began breathing through my mouth more quickly to keep up the act. My pulse began to rise again; not because of this pretense I was showing that I didn't know how the dragons got out, but because this may attract the attention of the entire village.

A lava blast from the Gronckle went sailing over my head straight toward the man at the entrance, and he dove out of the way just in time. "I'm weaponless!" I call out to him, and I noticed that he didn't have any weapons on him either.

"Neither do I!" he says from the ground.

Before he could turn his eyes back to me, I signaled at both of them to come straight to me and pointed at the sky. Then I shaped my fingers into a claw and grabbed my other arm with it before pointing back at the entrance.

Basically, I wanted both of them to come straight at me, and I wanted the Nadder to pluck me from the ground and carry me away. Hopefully, the message got through—we've only spent about five minutes together, and that surely isn't enough time to try to develop a bond like the one I share with Skullcrusher.

The other man turned to face me, and I held two hands in front of me as if trying to stop the dragons who were now creeping up on me. The man started sprinting toward the three of us, but I stopped him before he could reach the dragons.

"Stop!" I order him, continuing to back off toward the entrance. "We won't be able to win this without weapons."

"Well, then what do you suggest we do?" he asks, exasperated by the fact that two of the arena's four dragons escaped without any evidence or explanation.

"Rush back to the village. I'm going to try to drive these two away from the exit so you can get out. There's no way you'll be able to get them back into their cells right now."

He glanced at the cells and noticed the burns in each of them. "Okay. Just be careful."

The man turned away for a few seconds, rushing over to a bin in one corner of the arena. I signaled at the two dragons to come straight at me now.

Both of them charged, the Nadder leading the fray. Its claws extended as they approached, and I held out a hand so I could latch onto it as it passes by.

One second later, I'm hanging only by one hand as the Nadder dragged all of us out of the arena. I couldn't help but scream to signal my departure. The man in the arena turned straight back to find me in the air, leaving the arena.

"Eret, son of Eret!" he shouts, breaking out in a sprint toward us. The Gronckle turned to face him, and he halted in his path.

"Save yourself!" I call out to him, and the Gronckle turned away to follow us. We have left the arena by now and were soaring close to the ocean, the Gronckle trailing behind us a bit.

I was left hanging by one hand on the Nadder's claws, and the dragon slowed down and allowed the lagging Gronckle to play catch-up. After about a minute of flying straight away from the island, I brought up my other hand to grip a claw on the Nadder's other leg, the Gronckle now quite close.

My eyes met the Gronckle's and for a moment a wave of trust seemed to surge through me as it positioned itself directly under me. I glanced back up to look at the Nadder, and then down at the Gronckle right below me, and released my grip.

Expecting the next thing I feel to be the ocean, I was half-surprised to find that I landed right atop the Gronckle's back. I repositioned myself on the dragon, finding it uncomfortable—how could Fishlegs even fly this thing?

Well, he does have a saddle, while this Gronckle is saddle-less. I pointed it in the direction I believed that the island I met Jarl was in, and all three of us turned in that direction.

About an hour went by, and now the moon had taken over the skies as night fell on the world. I began to doze off.

"Eret!" a familiar voice calls out. Something lit up above me, like a dragon's fire in the night.

Whatever—or whoever—it was, they seemed to be giving away their location on purpose. Of course I should have guessed sooner that it was Hiccup because he was the only one who possessed a blade that lights up, and I had just heard his voice. But I was still half-asleep at the time, I didn't really notice that Skullcrusher had plucked me from the Gronckle's back until I was already back on the saddle.

"Thank you, Skullcrusher. I honestly wasn't expecting you guys to come hunting for me," I say.

"Where have you been?" asks Astrid.

"Oh," I start, "it's sort of a lot to take in."

I glanced back at the island I just left this evening, feeling no remorse. I left my old job a long time ago, and now it was apparent to them that they have never heard of it. Let it stay that way.

Because now, thanks to that man in the arena, word will spread across the village.

And forever they will have to believe, though it is not entirely true...

Eret, son of Eret is dead.


	6. Chapter VI: Eret's Explanation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eret has to explain his reasons for leaving them at the nest.

ASTRID

When we arrived back at Berk, Eret was practically sleeping—it took him about a minute to realize that Skullcrusher landed them right next to his house.

"Well, Eret," starts Hiccup, and his head snapped upon hearing his name, "I'll let you rest tonight, and you can tell us what happened in the morning."

He nodded slowly and turned back to his house, disappearing behind the door. All of us started away from his house and started toward our own homes, ready to collapse on our beds from sheer drowsiness.

Hiccup turned to Snotlout as we continued on our path. "See, I told you not to jump to any conclusions. Eret's back in the village, safe and sound. Just, there's no hint of defiance in him."

"Tut-tut," he replies, trying to sound enraged, "and you told me not to jump to conclusions? You've already decided that Eret's completely detached from dragon trapping, and you're telling me not to jump to the conclusion that Eret might still be conspiring with those people."

"Well, let's just take it easy now," Hiccup suggests. "Besides, he's still got a story to tell on why exactly he left Skullcrusher there on that island."

"Later guys," I say once we reach my house. We all exchanged 'farewells' and 'goodnights' before I shut the door behind me.

Paying no heed to the others inside the household, I rushed over to my bed, set my axe down, and lay down on the surface.

* * *

When I woke up, the sun was already shining through an open window inside the house. I shook my head and strolled toward the door, ignoring the meal already placed on the table. I'll find something to eat later—right now, it's a matter of getting to the Meade Hall so Eret could tell his tale.

Stormfly left her post right outside the house and began to follow me up the stairwell that lead to the Meade Hall. The towering double doors swung open as I was about halfway up the stairwell, and Ruffnut appeared in the doorway.

She held her post in the doorway until I reached the top of the stairs, and I entered the Meade Hall to find Gobber, Hiccup, Snotlout, and Tuffnut all seated at a table. Fishlegs and Eret were still absent, and should be here soon.

I joined them at the table, taking a seat next to Gobber and grabbing a slice of bread from a plate laid out on the center of the table. "So, how's everyone doing this morning?" Hiccup ask, albeit a bit awkwardly.

"Well, Hiccup, you really know how to start a conversation," says Snotlout, "but to answer your question, I've been thinking a bit."

"Wow. Snotlout has been thinking? Now, that's definitely a first," I comment sarcastically.

"Oh please," he says. "'Not thinking' is what the twins do."

"Fine," I say. "So what have you been 'thinking' about?"

Snotlout remained silent, all eyes fixed on him. "Uh… nothing." He scoffed. "I was really just trying to get an actual conversation started. Hi, Hiccup!" he says in a suddenly jolly mood. "How's it going between you and Astrid? I heard you two have really been… thinking about… whatever you two like to think about on your own time, and how Hiccup has just been spending time working in the village and that you're probably thinking that this entire conversation has gone nuts because I'm here to ruin everyone's day."

Silence for a few seconds.

"I don't even know how you're supposed to respond to that," replies Gobber as the doors flew open again, revealing Fishlegs and Eret.

They both trotted over to our table once they saw us and took a seat. "So," starts Fishlegs, "looks like we're all here, so let's all settle down and allow Eret to speak for himself. So what really happened on your day-and-a-half-long journey?"

"Well," says Eret, "I think we should start it when Hiccup sent me off from the nest to inform everyone that he was out at the moment working on revitalizing the now-dilapidated fortress.

"So, I was flying back to Berk when I passed by an island that I'm pretty sure you've encountered—the one with all the dragon traps on it. There was a ship loaded with nets and catapults anchored near the island, so I landed to investigate. It was in that clearing I left Skullcrusher."

Eret cleared his throat before continuing. "I knew that Skullcrusher wouldn't be able to go anywhere on that island without catching a trap."

"Huh," Hiccup comments. "That's the exact reason we left Toothless, Stormfly, and Hookfang on the beach of that island, because it was just loaded with traps."

"Well, great minds think alike. Anyway, I eventually stumbled upon a group of trappers who all used to work for Drago Bludvist," Eret paused for a second, "but, as I eventually learned, they hated working for him."

"Then why would they still be trapping if Drago's dead?" I ask him. "There's no more tyrant to work for, so why keep working on the one thing they hated to do?"

"Well, they didn't really seem to hate trapping," says Eret. "I'll say right now that you should remember one thing: Berk, as far as I know from traveling island to island working for Drago, is the only place where both humans and dragons actually live together in harmony. Every other human village hates dragons, while every dragon nest—well, I've actually never encountered a dragon's nest, but I can ensure you all that all dragons that live in the nests hate humans.

"But what really gets me the most is the methods they use for trapping," continues Eret. "I saw with my own two eyes when I encountered them, they lured a Snafflefang into a trap using geodes. And when the Snafflefang tried to lash out at them, they used  _dragon nip_  to incapacitate it."

Dragon nip, of all things? Its purpose is to calm rogue dragons, but it didn't take me much time to think about how it could go the wrong way. When someone possesses dragon nip, they basically possess the ability to calm any dragon, with few exceptions.

"So, what did you do then?" I ask.

"The first thing that came to my mind was 'I have to get back to Skullcrusher and warn Berk about someone who's got access to this kind of thing', but then he offered me to return with him to his own island—of course the guy has to be the chief of his own tribe!" exclaims Eret with a hint of vexation in the tone of his voice.

"Did you accept his offer?" asks Fishlegs.

"Basically," spits Eret. "I mean, I was sort of obliged to go with him, else I tell them that I stopped trapping two months ago and… they decide on some horrible fate for me."

Some of us just stared at him.  _Why didn't he just scram? Because he wouldn't have gotten away._

"I panicked, okay?" he snaps. "I decided to take the safe route because I knew they would be able to catch me if I just tried to leave then and there, either with a trap or just simply catching up to me. I wouldn't have gone to Skullcrusher in time."

"Easy now," says Gobber. "Let's just continue with your day-and-a-half journey."

"So, when I arrived at their island, they gave me everything because he thought I was still 'the best dragon trapper alive'. I guess word doesn't really travel far from Berk, and everyone probably thought I was just living in isolation from everyone. And when I say 'everything', I really mean 'everything'."

Silence again for another few seconds.

"Okay. Maybe not  _everything_  everything, but you get the gist. The essential things. Food and a place to stay.

"The next day, he showed me some of the techniques he used and took me to the arena on the island, where the Gronckle and Nadder last night came from.

"But the three main things he used for dragon trapping were dragon root, dragon nip, and eels."

I shifted slightly. Dragon root and eels, huh? Well, there's the plant that makes dragons go insane, and there's the one thing from the ocean that also makes dragons… go insane. Basically, a dragon going insane is a bad sign and something that, at all times, should be prevented if possible. If a dragon's already come too close to a root or accidentally nipped an eel, then good luck caring for it.

That is, unless said dragon is a Typhoomerang, whose diet consists mainly of eels, or a Gronckle, which is immune to dragon root. Gronckles should be easy to obtain on the island—they're one of the most common dragon species in the area! Typhoomerangs, on the other hand, would be difficult to find, and then we would have to train them, which would be more hazardous than caring for a trio of baby Thunderdrums.

"Speaking of dragon root," Fishlegs pipes up, "Gobber, do you know how Grump reacts to having that plant placed near them?"

"No, and I don't really plan on trying it," replies Gobber. "Why do you ask?"

He shrugged. "Because Hotburples are closely related to Gronckles."

"Huh." Gobber tapped his chin several times. "I'll have to try that."

Eret decided to continue with his story. "Then they called a meeting in the village's Great Hall, and then he spoke of a meeting in two weeks concerning the dragon scourge that his tribe, along with pretty much every other tribe in the archipelago except this one, faced.

"But then there's one thing, and that's the fact that his island is located so close to another dragon's nest, one I haven't seen myself. I could tell that it was quite close because he knew exactly how the island was plotted out and he even knew what the nest's alpha was."

"And that would be…" I trail off.  _Please be a Bewilderbeast. Please be a Bewilderbeast._

"Well, he didn't really state it himself, but he said that the island that the nest is situated on has a volcano."

I banged my fist on the table, taking everyone else by surprise. I scowled. "Of course we're going to have to deal with another tyrant queen dragon."

"No, we don't really have to get rid of her, we're just going to have to—"

"No, Eret, Astrid's right. If there's one dragon in the world that is purely evil, it's the queen of a nest. Every nest has either a king or a queen. While a king Bewilderbeast can at least be reasoned with, the queen Red Death is exactly how any Berkian would have described dragons six years ago," Hiccup explains.

"And… how exactly does it involve us?" asks Eret.

"Humans and dragons cannot live together so long as there's a queen to control the dragons. Plus, one does not simply fight a queen—we were only able to defeat the Red Death on dragonback."

Eret groaned. "Don't tell me. You want to get rid of that queen that's been forcing dragons to raid his village. The dragons that eventually end up in one of two ways. Either the trappers slaughter the dragons, or the queen just devours the dragons when they don't bring enough food back."

"That's the exact reason peace isn't possible when there's a queen in play. The dragons fear for themselves. They're always trying to fill their quota for the queen by raiding villages constantly." Hiccup chuckled slightly. "Come to think of it, Drago is very much like a queen himself. People only follow his orders because they dread what would happen to them if they didn't, and what happens when a trapper doesn't fill his quota?"

Eret slowly lifted a finger and pointed at the scar on his chest. " _He promised to be much less forgiving in the future,_ " he mutters under his breath, remembering the exact words he said to us when we first met him and he told us what happened when he showed up without filling his quota.

"Exactly," Hiccup says.

"You're not saying we're actually going to face off against a queen dragon  _again_?" asks Fishlegs.

"In fact, I am," Hiccup says.

A look of trepidation washed over Fishlegs's face. "Hiccup, you can actually  _die_  out there. This isn't a Flightmare, or a Screaming Death, for that matter."

"Well, this time we'll know what's coming. Plus, about her controlling all the dragons, I don't see a reason to worry about that so long as Toothless is around."

"But—"

"Fishlegs. Break down the Red Death for me again, just to refresh everyone's memory. I don't think anyone would want to read the book, since you know pretty much everything."

"Chief. Do you really want me to do this?" he asks after a moment of stunned silence.

Hiccup nodded in reply.

Fishlegs grumbled for a moment before speaking. "Heavily armored skull, tail built especially for bashing and crushing. Six small eyes and large nostrils, relies primarily on hearing and smell. No blind spot, and can most definitely fly." He took one last deep breath. "Extremely dangerous, kill on sight."

Everyone at the table burst into laughter at the allusion to the old Dragon Manual and its signature line. Apparently, that saying was still true with this one dragon.

"Great!" exclaims Gobber. "So, when do you want to head out?"

Another thoughtful moment. "We can go right now, actually, if you want to," says Hiccup

He scoffed. "Nonsense! This is something that we actually have to plan, mind you, if you will kindly recall last time we just suddenly got up and brought the whole village to a dragon's nest. Stoick, I am forever grateful, for Berk is still bustling only because your son saved us from our inevitable deaths which  _you_  lead us to…" Gobber began waving his prosthetic hand in the air, "I'll get you in Valhalla; you just watch out!"

This earned several more chuckles from everyone at the table. I tried my best to take it lightheartedly, but the mentioning of dad and Valhalla only unsettled me a bit. "Okay," Hiccup tries to say, holding a grin on his face. "Then let's actually plan out this 'raid on dragon's nest', if you want to call it that.

"First thing's first," continues Hiccup, snapping into a more chief-like style. "Who are we going to take along with us?"

* * *

HICCUP

As I sauntered out of the Meade Hall, I ordered everyone to at least begin packing up for a long journey. I had no idea on when we would be leaving, so I simply told everyone to just prepare to leave.

The first person I decided to search for, of all people, was Spitelout. I continued to weave through the village, searching for Snotlout's dad.

We decided that this would be something carried out by Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, the twins, Gobber, and me. Eret opted to stay behind and help keep the village in shape, while mom… well, we should be gone by the time she finds out we left.

Eventually, I found him loading a fishing boat. "Spitelout!" I call out as I'm halfway down to the docks.

He turned and waited for me to reach him. Once I did, I skidded to a halt.

He reeked of fish—he probably hasn't bathed any time in the past few days. But it didn't really matter when you're out there for hours at a time hauling in the dragons' food. Besides, everyone in the area smelled like fish. "Hiccup," he greets me.

"I'm planning a departure to a recently discovered dragon's nest. I don't know when I'm leaving, but just know that when I'm going, you'll be acting chief."

Spitelout, of all people, would have to take over as acting chief. If I had to choose someone to work as acting chief, my default choice would be Snotlout—as much as I hated to think of it, he's the next in line. But because Snotlout is coming with us to the nest, I had to choose someone else to take over—someone who was at least related to dad in some way.

So I decided to go with dad's younger brother. As far as arrogance goes, he's no better than Snotlout, but at least he has some sense of logic, something that Snotlout has taken much longer than most people to develop.

He stood there, facing me in a stunned silence after my sudden announcement. It must have gone on for another thirty seconds before he spoke up. "Uh… okay, that was a little sudden. But fear not, Hiccup, Berk will be all right when you return."

"Thanks," I say in reply. "Just make sure no one ends up blowing the village up or killing themselves. I want the entire village intact when I return. Nothing too challenging, is it?"

"No. Definitely not."

"Good. I'll be back soon, hopefully," I say as I turn away from him.

I sprinted up the slope back to the village, finding Toothless resting outside the Meade Hall. I called him over and turned to Gobber's workshop, where all of us would meet up.

Sure, it's been about ten minutes since we split up, and now we're leaving again. Maybe it could have used a bit more preparation, but there was really nothing we could do to prepare for this journey. Maybe an extra tailfin and connecting rod, along with a spare prosthetic leg should anything ever go wrong out there, just to be safe.

Seeing that I hadn't adequate time to make a new prosthetic leg, I decided to just settle with the tail that always sat in Gobber's workshop for this purpose. I doubted whether I would need the leg anyway—if something was precise enough to hit me in just the right spot to dislodge my prosthetic, they would have just used that shot to dispatch me.

When I reached the workshop, Gobber was the only one there. It wasn't really a surprise, considering the fact that the others had their own fair share of things to gather, and I really didn't want to have mom interrupting this.

About half an hour went by, and I was shocked to find out that the next person to come up to the stall was mom, holding a disappointed scowl on her face.

"Hey, mom," I say, trying to sound as casual as I could.

"Why, Hiccup, are you always keeping secrets from me?" she asks in an irritated tone. "I can say that this is probably the most outlandish thing you would ever dare to do! I mean, setting off to kill an alpha. Hiccup, you'll die trying. Look what happened last time you—"

"I know," I interrupt her, patting what was left of my left leg. "But last time was five years ago. Think about how much has changed since then, and what has happened here in the past three months. You came back to Berk, we defeated Drago, so much has happened in the past few months. Believe me, I know what I'm doing."

She scoffed. "Killing a dragon, that's what. I thought you, of all people would know better. Why do you have to get involved every time humans and dragons are fighting each other?"

"Ah, you don't know that," I say, waving it off.

Mom shot a bored look at me, which clearly told me that she wasn't having any of this.

"Okay fine, maybe you do. But what about you?"

"I only got involved because they attacked the nest," says mom. "I clearly didn't try to end the conflict here after Cloudjumper took me—I didn't even return once because I didn't think anyone could change."

"Fine. But back to what you said a minute ago. You said 'killing a dragon, I thought you would know better'. Are you really taking a queen's side?"

"If it means saving a dragon's life, then yes," she says sternly.

Wow. She clearly isn't afraid to say what she believes.

"Well, we'll be saving hundreds of dragons' lives by taking hers. Do you know what a queen does to her subjects?

"Look," I start, "I think we can all agree that the world is full of good dragons, but then there's always that odd one out who's just pure evil… the ones that justify the famous line 'kill on sight' from the old dragon manual. It's like people. There are a lot of good people out there, but you can never reach them because they're always covered up by the ones who kill without reason. They are, to put it, 'extremely dangerous'."

"Is there an entry in the new book of dragons for the Red Death?" asks mom.

It took me a moment to think of an answer before I saw Fishlegs passing by in front of the stall. "Hey, Fishlegs! Is there an entry in the book of dragons for the Red Death?" I ask.

He turned toward us and thought for about a minute. "No, because the book of dragons is all about training them. Since the Red Death is pretty much untrainable, there really isn't a need for an entry in the book."

"Thanks," I say. "Put that on the list of things we'll have to add to the book: a guide to untrainable dragons."

Fishlegs turned away and scrambled toward his house, lugging an entire sack of fish along the way.

That left just mom and me to ourselves again. "Please, mom, don't try to stop me from doing this. It's something we have to do if we're ever going to change this world. The Red Death—even when we've only observed it for, like, a total of thirty minutes, we know she treats her subjects in a crude way. Like an alpha, she controls the dragons and forces them to raid villages just to feed her and her alone. If they don't bring enough food back, they're eaten themselves. It's just—"

"Hiccup." There's her more soothing voice, the one she often uses when she wants me to calm down, or the one that anyone would use to comfort someone who is having a bad day. "I'm not going to stop you."

I brightened up once I heard her say those words, and soon I found myself in a tight embrace. "I'll be back, probably," I say.

"No need for drastic measures," she says. "You know more than last time. You'll be able to do it and get out with all limbs intact this time."

"Okay. And just so you know, Spitelout's going to be acting chief while I'm gone. I don't think it's too much to worry about—I mean, his son is worse by miles. Don't tell him I said that."

Mom just laughed. "Okay, I'll make sure no one ends up destroying the entire village."

She turned away and headed back toward the house. After another few minutes, the twins appeared, followed by Snotlout and Astrid.

A few more hours of waiting, and it was about afternoon when everyone was ready inside the workshop, all of our dragons waiting patiently outside for a signal of our departure.

We all left the workshop and mounted our respective dragons, and we took off in the direction we had gone in when we searched for Eret.

I knew that we were still too far from the nest for the dragons to be able to latch onto something. I didn't worry much about the queen controlling our dragons, as Toothless was also an alpha—he can probably order dragons around better than the queen ever would be able to.

Yet we still had no idea where exactly this nest was. All we knew was that it was somewhere off in this general direction, according to what Eret had said. There would be a dragon trapping village, so I made the note to steer clear of any villages we may come across during this journey.

So we continued in the direction we were going, waiting for any villages to appear below us or for any signal that we may have moved into the queen's range. Of course, the journey didn't go without any complaints, and it didn't surprise me who the loudmouth was.

Snotlout grumbled atop Hookfang and lay flat with his back pressed to the saddle. "Do we even know  _if_  there's a nest out here somewhere?"

"No," Astrid responds. "But this is pretty much the only way we can possibly find it. Only a dragon can find a nest, and it's not like a queen can reach all the way to the edge of the world just to pick off six dragons."

There was another moment of silence until Snotlout burst out complaining again. "How do we even know that the nest is in this direction? For all we know, it could be… gods know where."

"Hey Snotlout," Astrid pipes up, "next time you start complaining about something, maybe you should try to explain anything someone might ask you. Like, would you know which way to go?"

That seemed to shut him up, and we continued flying for about another hour before spotting a village off in the distance. Exchanging glances with Astrid and Gobber, we all pulled up and deviated to the right a little bit in order to avoid them. It was enough to move out of a catapult's range.

Keeping my eyes glued on the village the entire time, I noticed that it looked not much unlike Berk, but the banners emblazoned in front of the Meade Hall told me that it was another dragon-fighting village—nothing we really want to get involved with just yet.

As we flew around the island, Toothless's head snapped, grabbing my attention. "You got something, bud?" I ask, reaching down to him.

The other dragons in the group seemed to stumble in their flight paths—a clear signal that we were close to our destination. Toothless shook his head, and all the other dragons stabilized.

I decided to take the back seat and let Toothless guide all of us to our destination. He jolted to the right. I glanced back at the others and saw that they were shaking—anticipation or trepidation, I wouldn't know. Hopefully not the latter.

"Stay close. We're almost there," I tell them.

Seeing a huge wall of fog in the distance as we flew over an uninhabited island, I decided that we should stop right here. I halted Toothless and pointed down, seeing that the sun was just about to set. I wasn't up for fighting a queen in the dark, and I didn't think anyone else would have wanted to fight blindly.

We all landed on the island below us, the looming wall of fog in the distance seemingly calling for a fight right now. It was tempting to try to take care of this issue right now, but I resisted the impulse to do so.

From the beach, the fog seemed to glow as the sky grew darker. "We're not going to fight a queen when it's dark," I say. "Let's wait out the night. Get some rest. I think you all deserve it. Just watch out for traps if you're going to gather firewood."

Everyone unhooked their fish from their own saddles, taking a few for themselves and leaving the rest to their dragons. I kept my eyes away from the fog, believing that if I look away, it won't be so tempting to delve in.

 _Perhaps maybe one little search tonight… no killing, just observing_ , I think, picking up a cod from Gobber's pile.

After several minutes of searching in the woods, Fishlegs and Tuffnut dropped a batch of kindling on the beach, which Hookfang set ablaze right away. All of us rushed over to cook the fish we held. Raw fish was something that I promised myself to never try again unless it was the only thing available.

We ate a bit to satisfy ourselves, and everyone picked their own spot on the beach to slumber on. I felt tired as well, so I decided that it would be best if I don't head out to the fog, even if it is just to observe whatever was in there.

But the impulse rose over the next hour, and eventually I couldn't help but get up and find Toothless still awake. Without any warning, I locked my prosthetic into the stirrup and we took off straight toward the nest with the moon ruling the sky.

Straight into the fog we flew, and it was all instinct from this point on. I couldn't see a thing five feet in front of me, so I just flattened myself on Toothless's back and 'enjoyed' the ride.

Soon, a mountain came into view, one with tunnels on the sides that led to a series of passageways. I didn't know if Toothless would be able to navigate through, so I decided that it was enough until I spotted a pod of dragons flying toward the nest.

They weaved through the passageways, knowing the entire nest from the inside out, and we just followed them to a certain chamber that opened up to the sky above. At the bottom was more mist, and I already knew what to expect was in that.

Toothless landed on a nearby ledge, and we both watched in one of the darkest corners of the chamber. There was a tunnel leading straight out right next to us, so we could escape should anything go wrong.

Like the nest back near Berk, the dragons nearby dumped everything they had down into the mist. That was enough to prove to me that the fight tomorrow will be just like the Red Death. Already I decided that I had enough of this nest, and I had two ways out.

One, I can take out the queen right here, but first I would have to work through the hazard of drawing her out of the mountain first. My other option, of course, is to head back to the island and tell them that this was exactly like the Red Death.

"Okay, bud. Let's get us out of here," I whisper.

We took off again through the series of tunnels, and an ear-piercing screech sounded from behind. Did she find us? It certainly sounded like it, as the next noises that followed was a series of crunches as the queen climbed up the chamber.

I didn't dare look back, so we just continued zooming straight through the series of tunnels. The open sky was just at the end of this tunnel, and we managed to get out unscathed just before a searing stream of fire lashed straight out of the mountainside.

Then I decided to glance back to find all the dragons fleeing the nest. They'll be back, most definitely, but that would be after the queen's rampage ends.

Knowing what tomorrow will be, I turned back toward the island. Now, it's just a matter of resting before a battle.

This time, no one is leading his entire village to obliteration.


	7. Chapter VII: First, Crack the Mountain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now at the dragon's nest, the gang looks to draw the alpha out. But back at Berk...

ERET

I trod through the village, and already it felt quite empty, even though only seven people and seven dragons were gone. About half the village seemed vacant.

On the moonlit path that wound through the series of houses in the village, I spotted someone taking off toward the Meade Hall. Glancing up at the two colossal doors that marked the only way in and out of the hall, I saw several torches lighting the exterior of the hall.

Sighing, I continued along my path toward my home until I heard some clamoring in the Meade Hall.  _This is just going to be another mainstream uproar_ , I think.  _Well, at least it would explain why the village is so empty_.

Regardless, I still decided to head over to the Meade Hall because after about a minute, the boisterous voices refused to subside. Usually, when there was a tumult involving screaming and shouting—even the ones that involved the occasional fight breaking out—there would be the occasional grace period every now and then that often lasted no longer than a few seconds. However, this time, nobody seemed to quiet down to listen, and the outcry continued.

Grumbling beneath my breath, I raced up the many steps leading up to the Meade Hall and flung the doors open, ducking to barely dodge a piece of meat sailing above my head. I found Spitelout in the middle of the hall, trying to quiet everyone down.

"This is totally outrageous!" someone hisses, slamming his knife down on a table and burying the blade in the wood.

Dodging meat and knives alike, I somehow managed to navigate my way through the Meade Hall and ended up next to Spitelout unscathed. "What's going on this time?" I ask, slightly vexed at the people who failed to silence themselves, even under the acting chief's orders—to sum it up, it was basically the entire village.

"Let's dismember him before he gets his hands on our dragons again!" a female Viking shouts at the top of her lungs.

"I call the arm!" a man calls out.

"Legs are mine!" says another.

Under gritted teeth, Spitelout managed to utter a few words before a chicken leg and a chunk of mutton came flying his way. "Apparently, someone found on the beach—"

Found what? What did they find on the beach?

Argh! The one time we need Toothless, or one of the dragons here, and they're all gone! And the only ones who could really navigate their way out of the hall to retrieve a dragon to silence the crowd were the ones too engaged in the fight to get a grasp on common sense.

But without knowing what they found on the beach, I didn't even know if this topic was even worthy of a debate. For all we know, this could just be another Changewing egg, but judging from the remarks some of the Vikings were making, I could make it out to be a  _who_  and not a  _what_.

So who did they find on the beach? Well, first I'm going to have to find the one who actually found this certain person who's worthy of causing a hullabaloo throughout an entire village. Great. A task that is nigh impossible—there are definitely better options than this.

My second option is to just take on the sailing hunks of food that people just kept tossing around the Meade Hall with no care for what they were aiming at. It's just food, after all—until one throws in the occasional knife whizzing through the air at such a speed that one wouldn't know what hit them.

Thankfully, because no one seemed to take aim for anything, many of the chicken legs just bounced harmlessly off the tables, walls, and the floor, but then there was the occasional score that pegged someone on their chest or on their backside.

Yep, another option thrown out the window. Option three, silence the crowd right here without grabbing any of the dragons. Again, impossible.

So I had to weave my way through all the flying portions, and every now and then I would feel something bounce off my vest. Then, there was the occasional squish followed by a crack underneath one of my boots as I stepped on a chicken leg. A sound definitely worthy of a grimace.

Once I reached the door, I hauled it open again to find Valka and Cloudjumper progressing up the stairs. "What's going on in there?" she asks she moment she spots me.

Well, I guess there's no need to retrieve Skullcrusher anymore. Cloudjumper should be able to save me—and the entire village—at least five minutes.

"Well, apparently someone found someone on the beach, and now there's talk about how they're going to execute him—it doesn't sound too pretty," I tell her. "Spitelout's inside, but he can't seem to silence the entire village. You think you can lend him a hand with getting everyone to take it down a notch so that, oh, I don't know, people actually know what they're quarreling about?"

"Hmm," starts Valka, "I'll see what I can do." She wandered into the Meade Hall, Cloudjumper striding behind her. Once the doors shut behind them, there was a roar so deafening I gritted my teeth, even with a barrier separating me from the source of the noise—Cloudjumper, without a doubt.

All the noises in the hall suddenly receded, and I pulled the doors open once again to find the entire crowd staring, stunned, at Valka. "Someone knows how to make an entrance," one of them says in a slightly exasperated tone.

"Thank you, Valka," huffs Spitelout. He turned to address everyone in the Meade Hall. "So now, we can actually find out what we're all squabbling about. Mulch, you said Bucket found who on the beach?"

"Oh, it's horrible!" exclaims Mulch, inciting a rant. "He was supposed to be dead! Oh, none of us know where he is anymore, but he's somewhere on this island. He couldn't have gotten far, so let's just send a search party over to Raven Point and—"

"Just get to the point already! Who was it that Bucket found on the beach?" snaps Spitelout. A good number of people in the hall seemed exhausted after the fight, and also irked that they have not discovered who Bucket found on the beach.

Mulch took a deep breath. Whoever it is, it had better be someone actually worth spurring a commotion over. No one in the village would want to get roughed up in the Meade Hall just because some random Outcast might have washed up on our shores.

"Drago Bludvist," announces Mulch. He held up a black dragonskin cloak to prove his point. Evidently, people were too occupied in the brawl to know that he was holding Drago's cloak this entire time.

But this time, people eyed the cloak, displaying some mixed expressions on their faces. Some were filled with fury because it turned out that the man wasn't dead after all, while others stared at the cloak as if it were some trophy—the cloak of the one and only Drago Bludvist, the most feared man in the archipelago until a certain Hiccup overcame him.

 _But he's supposed to be dead_! We all watched his Bewilderbeast dive down into the sea with Drago still atop his head. There's no way he could have swam to safety with one arm.

Valka turned and looked outside the Meade Hall, agitated to find out that the man was still alive. The squabbling in the hall commenced once again as people began to toss around suggestions on how Drago should die. Roasting with dragon fire, tying him to something and tossing him into the sea, chopping him up, starve him, hang him—they all sounded like viable options.

I noticed Valka slipping out of the hall, and I followed her. "Hold on," I say. "We don't even know how powerful he is anymore. He's all on his own—we all know that his supremacy was all because of that Bewilderbeast. Now that it's gone, I don't even know if he can match the likes of anyone in the village, dragons involved or not."

"But do you even know what he was doing a few months ago?" Valka retorts.

I shrugged, brushing off her remark; anyone who hasn't locked themselves up in their own little cage at home would know the deeds of Drago Bludvist and how he 'alone' controlled the dragons.  _Correction, he controlled one dragon, which in turn controlled all the others,_  I think.

"A lot can change in a few months," I say.

"Perhaps." She remained silent for a few seconds before speaking again. "So, what's your stance on deciding his fate?"

"I say, if he's no threat, which is the most likely thing, then we don't kill him and just lock him up."

She seemed confounded by my response. "Are you saying that only because you worked for  _him_  those months back?"

"No," I reply sternly. "If he does turn out to be a threat, however, then I'm afraid we have no choice but to do away with him. Should save the trouble for all the village."

"Then why let him live if he doesn't pose as a threat to Berk's well-being?" she asks.

"Because there's the possibility that he might have something on him that will be of value to us. I don't know… knowledge, or something that only he knows. Better play it safe in case we might—although I pray that we won't—ever need a certain Drago Bludvist in our midst."

"Okay, I get it," says Valka with a hint of understanding. She turned and started down the steps, and I followed. "So, does anyone know where he is right now?"

"You heard. Bucket found him on the beach and he hasn't been seen since. Probably ran off into the forest somewhere, I wouldn't know. I was just out for a walk when I heard everything going on in the hall."

Valka glanced back down at the village. "Go get Skullcrusher, and meet me back here in five minutes." She then rushed straight back up the steps with Cloudjumper and disappeared behind the Meade Hall doors.

 _And she didn't even tell me what she's up to_. Rather than just standing there and pondering over what had suddenly popped into her mind, I raced back down to the village, found Skullcrusher near my house, and flew him back to said spot, all in the course of three minutes.

About another minute later, Valka emerged from the Meade Hall holding Drago Bludvist's black cloak in her hands. It dawned on me what she wanted to do—she's going to have Skullcrusher track him down on the island. How she managed to snatch that cloak from Mulch in the middle of all the yammering was a mystery to me.

Without even telling me what she was up to, she held the cloak in front of Skullcrusher, and he took a good whiff before turning toward the forest. He allowed me to mount him before he took off, and Valka and Cloudjumper followed behind us.

Skullcrusher glided over the forest, clearing the treetops by less than a foot. After about two minutes of flying, he guided us to a cove with a lake filling up about half the area.

That was where he froze abruptly and started his descent. We landed in the cove, and Skullcrusher continued on foot toward a cave.

And there he was—the madman who struck terror to all corners of the archipelago for years lay in the cave, seemingly weak and all on his own. The locks on his jet-black hair covered his face, and he was missing his left arm.

We didn't know if he was unconscious, so we approached with caution until we found that he didn't even attempt to budge. Only his chest puffed up and down, which told us he was still alive.

At the cave entrance, we both stopped, and I turned to face Cloudjumper. Valka signaled for him to come over, and she pointed to Drago.

"Alright, let's get him a cell in the village," says Valka.

Cloudjumper plucked him off the cave floor and proceeded back out of the cave. We followed, and I remounted Skullcrusher, ready to take off. Now, it's just a matter of getting him into a village and into a cell without allowing anyone else get their hands on him first. Then once he's in the cell, someone's going to have to stand guard at all times to ensure that no one kills him until Hiccup decided his fate.

We arrived back in the village, landing near the stables. Still, Drago has not opened his eyes, and Valka and I carried him to his own cell. Finding Spitelout passing by, we pulled him aside.

"Spitelout, we have Drago in a cell. By all means, I suggest we don't kill him until Hiccup can decide his fate," I tell him.

Spitelout nodded. "Where is he?"

We guided him to Drago's cell, and still Drago has yet to budge. "Someone's going to have to watch him just in case anyone might try to kill him while he's in there," says Valka.

He nodded again. "Okay," he mutters, "I'll have Hoark watch him, but if you can please stay here for a bit, Eret?"

I nodded in response. "Sure, I can watch him for a few, maybe a couple of hours if that's what you need.

"Thank you," says Valka. She then carried on and continued toward the Haddock's residence.

* * *

HICCUP

"I guess we have a lot to look forward to once all this is over," says Astrid.

"Sure," I say, filling up several canisters with Monstrous Nightmare saliva and Hideous Zippleback gas. "But it's not all going to be over after this. Once the queen's down, there's still the bringing peace to all the surrounding villages part. There are some who aren't even aware of this—I mean, look at Berk. It took three hundred years to discover what has been the true cause of all these raids."

Astrid socked me on the shoulder. "Stop thinking about it so much."

Rubbing my shoulder, I shrugged and carried on. The sun was shining overhead, and there were no ships visible on the plane. Just open ocean, followed by a wall of fog in a certain direction. Perfect for leading a raid on a dragon nest, but I knew that even though we knew more about the Red Death than ever, this would be no cakewalk.

After several minutes, we were all ready to head out to the nest. With the fog still visible in the distance, we all mounted our dragons and took off straight for the mountain.

I knew that they didn't know that it would be just like the Red Death all over again, but I decided not to tell them. They should find out in time anyway, before the queen could cause any significant damage.

Once the behemoth mountain came into view, I noticed that the fog in the area has cleared up quite a bit. We couldn't see the other end of the island, but we could at least come close to spotting the tip of the mountain.

There was a slightly eerie tone in the air as we came to a hover just outside the mountain. The place, definitely humming on the inside with all the dragon activity, seemed almost dead on the outside. Only the tail of a Monstrous Nightmare hanging off a ledge told us that there was life on this island. There was a buzzing noise resonating throughout the entire island.

Toothless landed on the island's gravel beach, and all movement seemed to freeze all of a sudden. The buzzing stopped, and my head perked up to see if anything had happened other than setting a foot on the beach.

"Huh," I say, "that's weird. Everything just stopped." I locked my sights on the mountain and listened as everyone else landed behind me. "Gobber, you were with my dad when he raided the nest, so what exactly did you guys do when you landed?"

"Well," starts Gobber, dismounting his dragon, "we set up catapults and all aimed them at a single spot on the side of the mountain."

Okay. "So first, we need to crack this mountain open to draw the queen out of there," I suggest.

"Essentially," replies Gobber.

"Alright. We don't have any catapults, so I guess our dragons are going to have to open up this mountain," I say, searching for any weak spots around the base. After about a minute or two, I marked a spot.

We landed all our dragons, keeping our eyes on the target spot on the side of the mountain just to make sure no one would lose it.

"Wait," I tell everyone just as Meatlug is about to fire a lava blast at the mountainside. "Gobber, what's there to expect after we open the mountain?"

"We expect all hel to break loose," answers Gobber. "Hopefully, all the dragons inside will flee before the queen emerges from the mountain—that's what happened last time, but you don't know what to expect this time."

"And if they don't flee?" questions Fishlegs.

"Then try to keep your head, because it's going to be some battle at dragon's nest."

On the gravel beach, where the fog is thick enough that we couldn't see halfway across the island—definitely more obscure than the nest back at home—we all took aim for the single spot on the side of the mountain.

Should I have listened to Gobber's warnings and instead held back? No, not after we spent a whole day just traveling here.

But then what's there to do after we get rid of this queen? We can't just drop down into the nearest village and say, 'Hey, we got rid of the source of all of your problems; now, if you don't attack the dragons, they won't attack you,' and expect them to not shoot at us. Besides, according to what Eret had said, I'm pretty sure the closest village from this nest is full of dragon trappers—those will probably be the toughest to convince.

 _Well, I guess we'll have to find out as we go_ , I think, taking a deep breath.  _First, crack the mountain. Then we can start worrying._

"Alright," I say, "hold together, keep moving, stay away from her head and tail, and hopefully all of us will be able to get out unscathed. How are we going to kill her? I don't know, maybe we can repeat the events of last time, but…" I tapped my leg, "no one's going to get hurt this time."

I turned to the mountain. "Hiccup," starts Astrid, "stay safe."

Unable to help but stifle a small laughter, I reply, "I don't really think any of us can play it safe if we're going to win this one."

"Well, show no fear," adds Tuffnut.

I waited a few seconds so everyone could lock onto the single point on the side of the mountain. It was the last chance I had to turn back, but we haven't even reached the fun part yet. I'm not turning around.

"Fire!"

Immediately, a lava blast sailed over my head, followed by several more shots from the other dragons. All of them arced toward the mountain, each shot impacting the same spot. The ground shook, but I couldn't tell whether it was the blasts themselves slamming into the side of the mountain or the queen herself preparing to emerge.

Toothless held back for a while before releasing a single shot at the side of the mountain, sending several boulders tumbling down the slope. With all the other dragons at only one remaining shot and Toothless at five, we stopped firing, but the rumbling from inside the mountain did not dwindle. It was as if some other brute force has been moving the thing the entire time.

I turned to face the others to find that they have not taken their eyes off the mountain—now's not the time to lose focus! The queen is about to emerge from the mountain (hopefully) and I'm here, standing in its immediate vicinity.

The rumbling continued, followed by an ear-piercing roar from the mountain. The side seemed to burst open, and all the dragons inside fled the scene, flying off into the fog where no one could spot them.

All of them, except one—the only one that truly resided in that mountain, and the one we expected to tear the mountainside open any minute now.


	8. Chapter VIII: Battling the Red Death 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now they must face a queen for the second time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed the title of this story because I didn't like the first one very much. Hopefully, this new title will make more sense.

 

ERET

They'll send a search party out there any minute now. I watched from beside Drago's cell as what seemed to be about half the village exited the great hall toward the forest, the uncivilized half of the island teeming with shrubbery. Drago still lay unconscious in his cell, and I have been waiting here on Spitelout's orders. About an hour had passed, and still no sign of Spitelout or Hoark.

Another thirty minutes passed, and Drago didn't even stir in his sleep—if it wasn't for the faintest breathing noise and the slight puffing of his chest that I had caught onto when I entered the cell to check if he was still alive, I would probably be convinced that he's dead and would have thrown the body out, allowing the village to decide its fate. Even if the entire archipelago believes he's dead, any of his possessions, including the cloak or his now-lost prosthetic arm, could probably go for quite a hefty price with traders. It makes sense; who wouldn't want to have his possessions on display as trophies in their own home?

Time dragged on, and eventually I began to doze off as neither Spitelout nor Hoark appeared. I expected Valka to be asleep by now, so there wouldn't be any use in seeking assistance from her—besides, I can't even leave this post.

Soon, as I was about to fall unconscious, the sound of footsteps caught my attention. Alarmed, I snapped awake and turned my head in search of who it might be here. It was only one person.

I rounded a corner only to find that it was Bucket who was walking on the wood, and I immediately lowered my guard. "Oh, it's just you," I say, eyeing the bowl of mutton in his hands.

"Spitelout's orders," says Bucket before carrying on and grabbing the handle to Drago's cell.

I tensed up immediately, hoping that Drago was still asleep—for all we know, he could just be awake and trying to fool us into believing he's unconscious until the moment we release him, and then he'll strike when we least expect it.

But again, nothing happened as Bucket set the mutton down on the floorboard in the corner of the cell, far enough so Drago couldn't knock it over if he ever snaps while sleeping.

Drago's body moved for the first time in an hour. The sudden motion seemed to startle Bucket, as he instantly rushed out of the cell and slammed the cell door shut, producing a shrill ringing sound that could probably be heard from across the village.

"Easy with that!" I say, gritting my teeth.

Bucket sighed. "Sorry." He then continued back toward the village, where the search party was just returning from a failed mission from Raven Point, toward the cove in which we found Drago. If Valka and I had put off the search for Drago, then he would definitely be dead right now without Hiccup's consent.

The half of the village that was searching shuffled uncomfortably toward their own houses, definitely disconcerted by Drago's presence on the island. Even though no one was aware of where he was on the island, the simple presence of Drago Bludvist  _on the island_  unsettled them. It would probably be a bit too much to take in if they find out he's in the village, albeit behind bars.

A few more minutes passed and still no sign of Spitelout and Hoark. I was beginning to give up and decide that Spitelout ditched me or something and left me to watch the cell instead of Hoark. That, or there is a profusion of other logical explanations as to why he just left me here when he promised he'd get someone else on post.

When daylight came, I found that I must have dozed off sometime during the night, as I opened my eyes with half of my face resting on the floorboard. That side felt a bit sore, and I shot straight up the second I realized I had fallen asleep on the floor and swatted a bug away from my face.

I glanced over to the cell to find Drago awake for the first time since I last saw him two months ago. He slumped up against the side of his cell, and my first impulse was to kill him right on the spot when he's defenseless, but I held back. But it wasn't enough to stop me from addressing him sourly.

"Bludvist," I spit.

He grumbled and turned his head toward me. "Son of Eret," he says in the same tart tone.

That was no surprise. I figured he already knew that I had betrayed him back at Berk, so I didn't really expect any warm greetings from him anytime soon—no, I've never really expected any fervid remarks from his mouth to begin with. He's lived too long in the bitter part of his mind that it's completely taken him over—completely incapable of solicitude and jollity.

No sense of humor, covered in scars put there by the one thing he sought to erect an army out of: dragons; missing a whole arm that he lost to them, but it was because he sought to do something horrible. Now, without his cloak, he looked much more exposed than usual, with nothing to hide the spot where his metal arm would be.

"I think we both know I'm not getting out of this cell anytime soon," mutters Drago in a bitter tone. "Where's your so-called 'Dragon Master' now?"

"Why would I disclose that to you?" I say. "His location is none of your concern."

Drago scoffed. "It must be miserable, having to sit here and watch me all day while everyone's out there on dragonback. How must it feel; I can only assume the past two months were the roughest of your life."

"They probably would've, if you and I were on better terms than this, but I don't even see how that's in the slightest bit possible."

He cleared his throat and nodded slightly. "I still think…"

"Still think what, Drago?" I begin to demand.

"…that I can still win the entire archipelago over," he finishes.

That answer. I couldn't do much more than envy him after that response—does he know that he's really lost? Surely, he must know that the entire archipelago has believed he was dead since his Bewilderbeast dove into the water.

"I don't think so," I tell him, "your entire army has disbanded, all your followers are living like you've never existed to begin with, I can see that the entire archipelago has been much better off since you 'died' two months ago. I'm assuming you've still got a select few who are loyal to you, yes?"

"What's it to you?" he says, refusing to admit that he's still got a few on his side. They must have been the ones who rescued Drago after the showdown at Berk that ultimately lost him his Bewilderbeast—the one thing that made him so feared, despite the fact that barely anyone knew it.

But I decided against telling him that I knew he's still got some on his side. He shook his head and turned to face the back of the cell. "You know, I'm actually quite shocked that none of you have tried to kill me yet," he says admittedly.

"Oh, some have tried. You can thank me, the acting chief, and the dragon lady for stopping them," I say. "And some are still out for you."

"Why don't you just kill me now?" he asks.

Silence for a few seconds as I searched for a response. "Because the real chief is who's going to decide your fate. Who knows? Seeing your record and taking the chief's personality into account, I can guess that there is approximately an eighty percent chance of him deciding that you should be executed. I wouldn't get all too excited if that's what you're hoping for, though."

Then it hit me. If he's got some people still on his side and they  _had_  rescued him that day, then there's no way he would be here without some sort of plan behind him. Did he somehow know that the chief was going to decide against his death and would instead imprison him somewhere in the village?

In an interrogative tone, I spoke up without answering his question. "What do you have planned out?" I inquire.

He turned around to face me and shrugged. "Paranoid?"

"Call it what you wish," I tell him, "but you don't just randomly wash up on the island that just so happens to belong to the one person who defeated you, out of all the other hundreds in the archipelago. That is, not unless you have a plan."

Drago shook his head. "Clever, I must say, but leave me be. I haven't anything with me at the moment."

 _So he denies it_ , I think, glancing toward the Meade Hall and finding another group of villagers rushing in. Again there was faint shouting emanating from the hall, and it's barely been fourteen hours since the last one. Must be some new record.

"Looks like you don't have a choice," says Drago, turning back to face one of the walls. "Get going."

As much as I wanted—no,  _had_ —to stay so at least someone would keep watch on Drago and make sure no one tries to kill him when they see him. Maybe I can get Bucket to take up the task if I could find him.

I assumed that this uproar was sparked by Drago's presence, as the village could not seem to shut up about it since word got out. Deciding to leave him unattended, I took off away from the cell and toward the series of steps that led to the Meade Hall.

Upon reaching the hall, I pulled one of the doors open to find a group of Vikings in the middle. They were shouting as Spitelout watched from the side, his arms crossed. "He's in the village!" one of them yells in a horrified tone.

"And to support that…" Spitelout eggs him on impassively.

"I saw him in a cell locked up, and someone—I couldn't identify who—was talking with him!" the same man explains.

That someone would be me, but at least he didn't know it was me. I made a mental note to stay away from him, as he would probably recognize me as the man who was talking with Drago. He probably though I was conspiring with him.

Spitelout seemed taken aback that someone actually found out he was in the village, but he held his position and did not falter a second time. "You said he's in a cell," says Spitelout, "which means he can't possibly be a threat to the village."

"Still! He might have someone working to break him out or something like that! It would be like he broke iron bars with one fist," shouts another villager.

The acting chief sighed and buried his face in one hand. "Oh, what is Hiccup going to do with you when he gets back? That's not even logical, mind you."

Another voice erupted from one of the obscure corners in the hall, but Spitelout shut him up immediately before announcing his decision. "From now on until the chief returns, no one is allowed near Drago Bludvist's cell without my consent. That also means you can't go there to kill him. Orders of the acting chief of Berk."

More stirring in the crowd at the last line, but Spitelout was already on his way out of the hall. He started toward the door, blatantly ignoring all those who raised their voice over concern about his decision.

* * *

HICCUP

 _Any second now_ , I think, watching the last of the stragglers disappear in the fog. The haze seemed to clear up a bit in the midst of the island, in the middle of all the serenity we were expecting to break at any moment. Just how long is the queen going to take in order to tear the entire mountainside apart? There was already the gaping hole left by the others inside that have already fled.

I took in a deep breath and faced the others. We all exchanged several glances, waiting in trepidation for the colossal dragon to emerge from the mountain. The first thing we heard was another ear-piercing roar, and a boulder came tumbling down the side of the mountain. Stormfly barely dodged the incoming debris, and right away Astrid took off with her straight into the air. Fishlegs and Meatlug did the same.

A cloud of powder emerged from the incline. "Hold together!" I call out before taking off with Toothless to the other side of the island. We have to draw the queen all the way out if we want this to work—our spot would have the queen attempting to fry us with half its body still inside the mountain.

The rest of the group took off away from the island in an attempt to draw out the already-emerging queen. They'll be the first ones the queen sees; they'll be the first ones the queen goes after—Snotlout, Gobber, and the twins.

She took on a build just like the Red Death, and the coloration was similar as well. The top of her head reached all the way up the mountain, and I decided that it would be better if I didn't find out whether this or the Red Death was larger. I didn't think it would really matter anyway. When a dragon is that colossal and has the power to level mountains or burn villages to a crisp with one huff, exact size is probably the last thing someone would be concerned about.

I glanced for a split second at where all the others were before focusing my attention back onto the queen, whose entire body was now out of the mountain. She spotted her first target and took aim, and Astrid pulled out of her line of sight just in time. Maybe a little too close for comfort.

We shot straight up in the air, hanging for a second before diving straight down toward the queen's tightly folded wings. If this is exactly like the Red Death, then we're going to beat it just like we did with the Red Death—lure her into the air and fire into her mouth as she's about to spit flames.

I felt like I was back on Dragon Island, and that the fog that had concealed the island from Vikings for three hundred years was back. The Viking ships they prepared for this battle would be burning now, over there, at the gravel beach.

Toothless fired straight at the wings, and the queen flinched slightly before snapping her massive head to face us. A stream of fire from the dragon's maw followed, and we pulled up straight toward the clouds in order to dodge it.

I glanced back for a second and spotted the queen unfurling her wings, revealing their massive size—they must have spanned about half the entire island! Perfect, if we're looking to get her into the air.

The others fired a few more blasts at the queen—some aimed at the queen's six eyes and some toward the wings. The impacts winded her for a brief moment before she snapped back at us, releasing another ear-piercing roar that caused our dragons to stumble mid-flight.

She released another blast before taking off toward us, and we all had to struggle to move out of her path. Astrid pulled up beside us, the queen pursuing closely—if she fires now, then we'd all be toast.

"Where do you want us now that we've gotten her off the ground?" asks Astrid, practically yelling over all the noises around us.

"Go to the clouds and away from the battle. Be ready to swoop in just in case something goes wrong," I tell her.

She nodded and pulled over to the side, out of the queen's path. Flying back toward the others, the queen ignored her as she continued to pursue the two of us. We could barely hold for our own, and Toothless was working as hard as he could just to outrun her.

As she was about to release another blast, Toothless turned around and attempted to shoot into the mouth, but he was too late and I had to pull the two of us to safety. I could almost feel my skin burning as it barely missed us. Thankfully, nothing on the saddle was set alight, and that included the tail.

Toothless had to resort to a simple shot straight at one of the queen's left eyes, causing her to blink for a second before resuming her pursuit. He fired one more shot to the wings to try to buy us some time so we could put some more distance between us and her.

 _Two shots left_ , I think as we continue in a straight line, weaving through a series of pillars that the queen was smashing through right behind us. She reached out with her jaw and tried to take a bite, but we were already too far ahead for her to catch us. Toothless fired one more shot at her lower jaw.

"Okay bud, let's hold this last shot," I say, pulling us straight up into the clouds. The queen sent another blast our way, which we were able to avoid with ease.

The queen lost us for a moment, and we pulled right above her in the perfect spot for me to jump. I locked Toothless's tail in an open position and jumped off onto the queen's head. Immediately, she started moving around in an attempt to knock me off, but I held onto the frill as I progressed toward the eyes.

Deploying Inferno while still holding onto the frill, I dove and japed it right into one of the eyes before diving straight off her head and slipping my arms through two cuffs on my suit.

Gliding down to where Toothless would be, it was just to my luck that I would come face to face with the same series of pillars we had just flown straight through, and I glanced back to find Toothless frantically trying to reach me.

"Toothless!" I shout. He fired off a shot straight at the pillar in front of me—his last shot, and he lunged forward, allowing me to latch onto something on the saddle.

Barely making it out of the pillars alive, I wasn't quite surprised to see the queen still pursuing us, now blinded completely on one eye. I slipped my prosthetic leg back into the stirrup and turned us around, finding Inferno still ablaze on the ground.

I glanced back and decided to take the risk, landing right next to the blade and scooping it up by the handle before taking off again. Sheathing it, I set off to find Astrid and the others.

Gritting my teeth and grumbling quietly in frustration, I pressed myself against the saddle as we flew off, the sound of the queen's rage becoming more distant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a bit of time since I last updated, and it's also going to be quite some time until my next update.
> 
> I am starting a month-and-a-half long hiatus for all my stories in order to focus on academics. With AP and STAAR tests approaching, I can't find any time to write. I will come up with one more update (that won't be on this story), and then I'll be disappearing until June.
> 
> Hoping everyone understands my situation,  
> -s

**Author's Note:**

> As I have multiple stories in progress, I'm going to try to keep updates at least weekly or every other week, though I often tend to deviate from update schedules. Again, feedback is highly appreciated.


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